


Web of Lies {Discontinued}

by StormEnchanter



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Assassins & Hitmen, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Armin and Mikasa are just bad-asses together, Armin is a badass hacker, Drama, F/M, Family Drama, Family Secrets, M/M, Multi, One Night Stands, Plot Twist, Slow Build, Suspense, Violence, casual Eruri relationship, casual Levihan relationship, ereri relationship starts when Eren is of legal consenting age, multiple casual sexual relationships, some future Moblit/Hanji relations
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-07
Updated: 2017-10-12
Packaged: 2018-03-16 18:46:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 21
Words: 121,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3498989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StormEnchanter/pseuds/StormEnchanter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being an assassin isn't as all as it's made out to be. There's no deals made in the cover of darkness, no cool gun techniques and definetly no Angelina Jolie going around and training others in the art. Being an assassin was all about being good at killing, knowing how to pull a trigger, and how to not get caught. Levi's the best at all three, but all that changes when he finds his luck has run out after a job he was hired to turns out to be botched and he finds himself on the run with a young two month old baby in tow. He definitely did not sign up for this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Heart of Ice

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, so this fic took me longer than I thought it ever would, 17 pages and a month later I find myself here.  
> I'll be looking for a beta reader(s) this fic, so if you're interested please let me know.

**Prologue**

He could hear gunfire behind him as he took off, running at a fast pace. A bullet whistled past him, scratching his cheek.

The clouds opened up, and rain was coming down from the sky in sheets, soaking his clothes and his hair. The baby in his arms wailed even louder; he ran as fast he could. The rain was pelting him in the face, blinding his vision. He ran. There was the unmistakable sound of sirens behind him. There was a bridge up ahead, Levi ran towards it, bright lights blinded him; he threw up his arm in attempt to shield some of the light away from his face as cop cars surrounded him on all side. He stepped backwards; he looked behind himself as his back touched the railing of the bridge. The river below him was stormy; the waves came crashing back and forth.

“Put the gun down and give us the baby.” Levi made a decision as he walked forward, slowly, until he could make out some of the distinguishing features on the cops faces, and then he spun on his heel and raced towards the bridge railing. Gunfire rang out and he grunted in pain as a bullet caught him in the shoulder, and then suddenly he was over the railing, floating in the air for a brief moment, and then he was falling; falling into the unknown.

**December 4 th**

The car silently glided along the streets of London, snaking it's way through the dark underbelly of London until the car turned a corner and drove along streets lined with boutiques selling items that most of London's population could never dream of purchasing in their lifetimes with their paychecks. Small flurries of snow, twisted down from the grey clouds that always seemed to hover over the capital. The snow fell down, covering the sidewalk and streets in a thin layer of slush, it splattered against the windshield of the car. He flicked the windshield wiper button with his thumb and watched as they cleaned this god awful mess off the car.

It was thirty more minutes of driving, before he arrived to his destination. He parked five blocks away from the large mansion. He could see from his vantage point that there where still lights on in the mansion, so he decided the cut the engine and just wait. He was immediately regretting having killed the engine. The interior of the car was slightly warmer than the temperature outside, but he could still feel the chill in the air. He tugged on the hem of his leather gloves until they reached the edge of his leather jacket. He leaned his head back, until it touched the headrest and flipped his wrist so he could glimpse at his watch, pushing the glove up a little, his eye twitched as the minute hand moved forward as the hour hand landed on twelve. The temperature seemed to just drop a little bit then.

He closed his eyes briefly as his mind turned back to the 3 months prior to him now currently sitting in a car, staking out the house of a wealthy millionaire in the middle of winter. He had been in his apartment, reading the morning newspaper when the thick Manila envelope had plopped down on the granite of the kitchen island. His hand shot out from behind the newspaper, a small handgun was held firmly in the palm of his hand, the muzzle aimed directly at the heart of the intruder.

"Next time, knock like a normal person."

Erwin smiled at him and pushed the muzzle of the gun away from him with his index finger, "since when are we _normal people_ Levi?" Levi huffed at him as he closed the newspaper and folded it up, placing it to the side of him to be read later. He grabbed the envelope and bended back the pin that kept in closed, he pulled out sheets of papers and pictures as well. He took a glance at the pictures first; they were mostly candid shots of a voluptuous blonde and an old man with thin, grey hair that looked like he was a moment away from ending up in a casket. Erwin began to talk after he had looked through all of the photos.

"Frank McCallister and his beautiful wife Patricia. He's a millionaire and his wife wants him dead, that's all you need to know."

Levi nodded, “any particular way she wants him dead?"

Erwin moved to the cupboards behind Levi, he grabbed himself a mug and moved straight to the coffee pot, he poured himself a cup of coffee and drank, before he resumed speaking. The bastard. "She didn't say, she just wants it to look as clean as possible so she can collect the life insurance. She's willing to pay 600,000 USDs to get the job done." Erwin drank the rest of his coffee and left without a word.

"Bastard," Levi muttered under his breath as the door to the apartment swung closed. He hopped off the barstool and set about to cleaning every inch of his apartment, leaving no place untouched as he started out washing the mugs he and Erwin had used and then moved to wiping down every surface he had ever touched, from the granite counters in the kitchen to every mirror that was in the small apartment. He had cleaned yesterday, but this was a daily routine for him.

Being an assassin was a hazardous occupation. There was constant paranoia working its way in the back of his mind, he cleaned, because he never knew when the day would come that someone or anyone discovered his identity much less where he was staying. He didn't want a single shred of his DNA to lead to his downfall. He headed towards the bathroom after he had cleaned the entirety of the apartment and used the edge of his towel to turn the knobs. He waited until the room was covered in a mist of hot air. He stripped off his clothes, which consisted of a black t-shirt and black sweatpants into a garbage bag he kept near the door, he stripped off his boxers and threw them into the trash bag as well.

He stepped into the shower and let the scalding hot water beat down upon his skin, closing his eyes in tranquility, before he began to furiously scrub at his body with a bar of soap until he turned red. He washed his hair as well and then rewashed his body; he used his towel to turn off the knobs and then dried himself off. Tossing the towel into the bag as well as he reached for the clothes that he had left on top of the sink, they were identical to the ones he had just tossed into the bag. He slipped on his clothes and left the garbage bag in the bathroom; he would drop it off in an abandoned lot and burn it there later.

Assassination wasn't typically what people thought it was outside of video games and movies and sometimes the typical television show. It wasn’t all about buying large guns that could fire off large amounts of ammunition per minute; it wasn’t cutting people up and feeding them to the sharks. The art of assassination was about finesse, it was about honing your skills and becoming the best that there was. Levi had trained his skills for as long as he could remember, having been taught the art of assassination, he took what he had and trained it. There were some assassins who paid little heed to this credo, and they were usually the ones that were hired by low-level gangs, and the ones that the police caught first, because they were too sloppy. Their skills where minimal at best, but this lead to sloppy work when it came to killing, the deaths would be messy, the staging of the crime scene too amateurish. Levi had seen too much of that in his younger days, and been lucky to escape while the others were caught. But there were also assassins that where the top of their class. Assassins skilled in poisons of all varieties; neurotoxins that could kill a person in less than three seconds when injected into the body, powders that could be slipped into one’s drink undetected and later that day cause the target to fall into a coma and die. Assassins like those that used poisons to kill where the most dangerous types of people and Levi was glad that he knew one women that was the best at that, and was glad that he was on her good side. There were also assassins that made it their life’s mission to be feared by others, until their names became a death sentence if it was even uttered, names that where rarely said for the fear of death lingering over those forbidden names. And then there where assassins like Levi, assassins that where in it for the money and where just naturally good at what they did. Though Levi was well-known and well sought after on the underground market, he had a single rule when it came to taking up jobs.

He didn’t kill kids. It wasn’t in his nature, it was much more easier killing adults than it was to kill a child, he didn’t have the heart to do it, not saying that he felt any emotion towards these kids, but it was just something he didn’t do. When you killed a man, you were there until his breath expired, there until the last light of life when out of their eyes and Levi had seen a lot of people die, to harden his nerves, to detach himself from all that was happening, but when it came to children, he wasn’t willing to pull the trigger. Some assassins could do it, could aim the gun straight at a child’s face and pull the trigger without so much as batting a single eye. There were even some assassins who got off on doing that type of stuff.

Levi made his way back to the kitchen and looked over the documents Erwin had dropped off a few hours ago. It seemed that Frank was ripe in old age; he was 89 and still kicking. He had a history of heart attacks and had been in and out of the hospital for the past two years and that’s when Levi formulated his plan, and also found himself sitting in a freezing car, a few weeks later, a few blocks away from the McCallister mansion.

A flashy red sports car roared down the road, which Levi had just driven up. That was the wife and she was right on time. He grabbed a small tool kit that he had placed on the seat and stepped out of the car, leaving in unlocked in case he needed to make a quick getaway if something went awry. He walked the five blocks that separated him from his car to the mansion and used the shadow of some nearby bushes to hide as he waited for the single light that were still on in the mansion to turn off. A few seconds passed and then the whole mansion went dark.

Levi’s eyes scanned the ground, though it was dark, his eyes where used to seeing in the absence of light. His eyes scanned the mansion grounds, there appeared to be no guards, so this job would be easy. He picked his way carefully towards the front door; there were no cameras on the property so he should be fine. He kneeled on the smooth marble surface of the landing and placed his tool bag next to him; he unzipped it and retrieved his tension wrench and pick. The lock was simple and a very cheap one at that to, so it wasn’t long before he heard the unmistakable sound of the lock turning, he grabbed the knob with his gloved hand and pushed open the door a fraction of an inch, before he returned his tools to the bag. He made his way inside and shut the door as silently as he had come in and made his way to the grand staircase, he had memorized the layout of the mansion before he had come, there where ten bedrooms in the two-story mansion, and eight master baths with two additional guest bathrooms. There was a maid and a butler, but they both retired to bed at around ten and the wife left every day at 12:30 to go clubbing with her male companions. Frank’s bedroom was the last one on the right; Levi made his way there, careful to walk on the tips of his toes, careful to make no noise. He grasped the doorknob in his hand and pushed open the door, the sound of snoring was the first thing he heard as he stepped into the room, softly shutting the door behind him. He rifled through the bag, until his fingers curled around the very thing he needed.

Levi walked forward, it was a moonless night, but he picked his way through the darkness, until he came to the large queen sized bed. The old man's chest rose and fell with each fragile breath he took, Levi pulled out a syringe and stared at the sleeping man for a few seconds before he got to work. He placed the bag near the edge of the bed and held the tip of the syringe between the thumb and index fingers of his left hand as he pulled back the plunger, filling the syringe with air; he moved to the older man's feet and stuck the tip of the needle between the webbing of his big toe. He pushed down on the plunger and pulled the needle out, placing it back into his bag which he promptly zipped up. He then stood in the shadows and waited.

He waited and waited, seconds passed, and then those seconds turned to minutes, then suddenly the old man's eyes shot open. He clutched his chest and a weird gurgling sound came from the back of his throat. His body spasmed and shook and then suddenly he fell still. Levi moved closer to the bed and pressed his index and middle finger against the large vein located in the wrist.

He didn't feel a pulse.

His work here was done.

Gathering his things, Levi moved out of the room, then down the hall, and then he was out of the house and had lock picked the front door until he could hear the lock click in place. He moved swiftly to the car. The snow which had fallen in light flurries earlier, was falling heavier now. The street was packed with snow that crunched under the tire wheels as the car raced down the road; disappearing and fading out amiss the blinding lights of London.

 

**December 10 th**

Levi took a sip of his coffee and placed the mug back down on the granite counter as his eyes glanced over the headlines in the morning paper in his hands. Large, block texted words caught his eyes: Young wife inherited millions after her elderly husband-a retired, wealthy banker dies of a heart attack. "You know, Erwin one of these days, I'm going to kill you."

Erwin chuckled as he placed thick stacks of cash on the counter in front of Levi. "You're payment." Levi placed down his newspaper and pulled the wads of cash closer to him; he picked up one and began to count through the bills. Erwin moved towards the white sofa in the living room and plopped himself down on the soft cushions. "There's another job for you. If you want to take it of course."

Levi placed the stack of cash back down on the island counter. "What's the job?" Erwin reached inside the inner pockets of the overcoat he wore and withdrew a thin Manila envelope, he tossed at Levi who caught in his hand and opened it. Inside where two single pictures and the blueprints for a large house. He examined the pictures first, his eyes slightly widened in shock as he stared at the faces of his targets. They were well known by the public, extremely well known. Levi stared at the man's face, laugh lines around the corners of his eyes and his speckled features relaxed as he stared at the camera, a small smile on his face as the small golden trophy rested in his hands. Levi stared at the next picture, the woman smiled to, but this was a photo taken just a few months ago. Her hair tied in a ponytail and tossed over her shoulder as she chatted away to one of the nurses next to her, her baby resting in the bundle of blankets in her arms. Grisha Yeager, a brilliant German physician, his innovate techniques in the operating room had saved a 6-year-old girl in dire need of a heart transplant; he had recently been awarded a prize by the German president for his prolific work in the medical field. Grisha's wife Carla was a Spanish citizen, who was renowned through all of Europe for her amazing vocal skills. She had recently been the leading performer at Europe's biggest opera event. The Yeager family was as famous as any countries own royal family.

"It appears that Grisha is involved with the darker side of his practice; extortion, fraud, and organ trafficking. However, it seems that Grisha has managed to double cross the people he works for. You're to kill him."

The son was the first thing that came into Levi's mind about taking the job. The Yeager family had just had a son about two months ago. "What about their kid? I won't take the job, if it means I have to kill the kid."

"I was assured that the baby would be with his mother during her trip back to Spain. You're to get the job done then," Erwin got up from the sofa and stretched his arms, then made his way out of the apartment.

Levi fished his cellphone out of the pocket of his sweatpants and swiped his thumb across the screen, bringing up the keypad as soon as the phone was unlocked; he typed in a series of numbers and pressed the phone to his ear. There was a lot of work that had to be done for the job.

 

**December 20 th**

Something felt wrong, something felt really wrong with this job, Levi thought to himself as he sat in a cozy German pub. As soon as he had set foot into this quaint, little town, there had been a nagging feeling just chasing him around, and it was one he hadn't felt in a long time. He reached inside the pocket of his leather jacket and produced a single cigarette. He placed it in between his lips an reached inside his other pocket for the lighter.

He flicked the hood of the lighter off and held the lighter up to the cigarette as he cupped his hand over the small flame. He flicked the lighter closed and placed it back in his pocket, he grasped the cigarette between his index and middle finger and took a long drag, before pulling the cigarette away and releasing a stream of smoke from between his lips. He watched the column of smoke, curl and twist in the air before fading away. His thoughts broiled in his brain as he took another drag of the cigarette. He had been in the country for less than six hours already, but something about this job was bothering him. It felt like he was going into the job blind, even though Erwin had provided him with all the information that the informant had provided them with, but Levi couldn't help but feel that there was something about to happen. There was going to be an ending to this job, one he definitely wasn't going to like. Part of his mind told him to run now, just leave Germany and go back to his apartment, tell Erwin that he wasn't going to do the job after all. He would have understood and simply handed the job off to someone else; Levi didn't need the money that badly. The money he got from his last few jobs was enough that he didn't need to take up another job for at least six months. Levi shook his head, maybe he was just overreacting, and there was probably nothing for him to even worry about. The bartender moved towards him and refilled his empty glass with beer. He muttered _danke_ and picked up the glass and downed the beer, it left a burning trail down his throat, but that terrible burning that some beers left that would leave you regretting having drunk it later, but a soothing burn that cleared his head and left a rosy tint on his cheeks. He sat in the pub, smoking his cigarette, until it was no more than a small stub. He dumped the stub of his cigarette into the ashtray on the bar and pulled out his wallet, he plopped down a few Euro's down and got up and left the bar.

The air was chilly as he stepped outside. Here in Northern Germany the air was cold in this small town near the Rhine River. He stood near the pub, observing the citizens of this town as they road past on bikes and greeted one another with warm smiles. A drop of water hit his cheek, causing Levi to look up at the sky. Grey clouds moved swiftly, the smell of rain was carried on the wind, and if that wasn't a bad omen, Levi didn't know what was.

Levi gripped the steering wheel in his hand as he stared at the two-story house across the street. It was small, just big enough for a family, but it was something that he didn't expect rich people to choose to live in. He took a deep breath, before getting out the car. The cold steel of the gun, pressed firmly to his hipbone as he jogged across the dark street. The layout of the house was on the forefront of his mind as he sneaked around the back, to the glass doors that led to the study, he could see the outline of a man's broad shoulders. His leather-gloved hand reached out and grasped the doorknob. He turned it, and was surprised that it was unlocked, something was wrong, but he wrote it off as nothing more than a family forgetting to look their door. He stepped into the study and pulled his gun out from the waistband of his jeans and pointed the muzzle at Grisha's head. Every single one of his sense was screaming at him to run, to get out of this house as fast as he could, to run and never look back. More than three seconds had passed since he entered the study, by now one would have turned around, any normal person would have turned around if they sensed a strange presence. Levi pulled the gun away from Grisha's head; he reached forward with a gloved hand and placed it on Grisha's shoulder. The man slumped off the chair and crashed to the wooden floor. Cold, dead eyes stared up at the ceiling.

"Grisha, darling-" the door leading to the study opened widely and the woman that Levi had seen in the pictures, Grisha's wife, Carla stepped into the room. "Darling!?" She screamed as she spotted her dead husband's body lying on the floor, her eyes shifted and widened as they came to settle on Levi.

He stepped forward, "I didn't- this wasn't me." Then she was out of the room, Levi cursed under his breath as he ran after her, sidestepping Grisha's body on the way. He burst into the hallway, just as she was racing up the steps and into the room on the right; she slammed the door behind her. Levi ran up the steps and went directly to the closed door, he tried the knob, it was locked. "Carla! Open the door!" He shouted, he rattled the doorknob again. He moved away from the door and threw his shoulder against it. He heard a woman scream as he threw himself at the door again and again, until it gave away and the door fell flat on the floor.

“Carla? Carla? What’s going on? Carla, tell me what’s happening right now!” Carla was shaking as she gripped the phone in her hands tighter. “Hannes-” Everything seemed to slow down, as it did in action movies. Levi aimed the gun at her heart. “There’s a man here, he-”

A single shot rang out.

Carla stared at the gaping wound in her chest, with trembling fingers, the phone in her hand dropped and she brought her other hand up to the weeping wound on her chest. She brought her fingers away, they were stained crimson red with blood and then she dropped on the floor.

“Carla? Carla? Are you there?” Levi shook; he brought his hands up to his head and pressed them against his temple. The baby in the crib started to wail. Levi started to panic as he paced the length of the nursery room. “Carla? What’s happening? We’ll be right there-” Levi walked over to the phone and brought his foot down on it, repeatedly, until it was nothing more than broken pieces on the floor. The baby was wailing louder now.

What was Levi going to do now? What the hell was he going to do? He moved to the crib, he could hear the loud wail of sirens somewhere up the street, louder than the wail the baby was letting out right now. The small 2-month-old baby was red in the face, a mop of chestnut colored hair covered his head, and his fists where clenched around an old key that had been tied to a leather cord. The sirens where coming closer. Levi had to make a decision. He grabbed the baby, bundled it in the blankets that where in the crib and ran out of the room. Levi ran down the steps and headed straight for the study where he had come from. The sirens where so loud now as they stopped right outside the house, Levi ran outside and ran around the house. The cops aimed their guns at him. “Put your hands up now!” Levi stared at them, the blinding lights of their sirens caused him to squint a little and he turned and ran. He could hear gunfire behind him as he took off, running and a fast pace. A bullet whistled past him, scratching his cheek.

The clouds opened up, and rain was coming down from the sky in sheets, soaking his clothes and his hair. The baby in his arms wailed even louder, he ran as fast he could. The rain was pelting him in the face, blinding his vision. He ran; there was the unmistakable sound of sirens behind him. There was a bridge up ahead, Levi ran towards it, bright lights blinded him; he threw up his arm in attempt to shield some of the light away from his face as cop cars surrounded him on all side. He stepped backwards; he looked behind himself as his back touched the railing of the bridge. The river below him was stormy; the waves came crashing back and forth.

“Put the gun down and give us the baby.” Levi made a decision as he walked forward, slowly, until he could make out some of the distinguishing features on the cops faces, and then he spun on his heel and raced towards the bridge railing. Gunfire rang out and he grunted in pain as a bullet caught him in the shoulder, and then suddenly he was over the railing, floating in the air for a brief moment, and then he was falling; falling into the unknown.


	2. Bienvenue à la maison

**December 20 th **

Jumping into that river, by far was one of the worst decisions Levi had ever made. It had saved his life, but he had soon come to regret that decision when his body had broken through the surface of the river. Sinking fast to the bottom, he could feel the current grabbing at him with cold, icy fingers. He remembered the baby in his arms; situations like these didn't call for him to become nervous, to become scared. He remembered one of his first lessons he had been taught.

It had been a cold winter's day; the pool was empty, as it was likely to be in the last few months of the year. His mentor had strapped five-pound weights onto each of his ankles and ordered him to jump into the deeper end of the pool, he was ten at the time and an extremely strong swimmer, and he had thought jumping into a cold pool would be as easy as learning to count sums. He was dead wrong. As he had jumped into the pool, the weights were doing their job, and slowly dragged him deeper and deeper under water, until the only thing around him was the dark blue pool water. His lungs were burning and the chlorine was starting to burn his eyes. If he opened his mouth he would die, he thought to himself as he struggled with to kick away from the pool bottom. The weights were stronger than he was and he could hardly kick upwards, save for a couple of inches, but he wasn’t reaching the top of the pool. His lungs felt like hot irons had been pressed into them, he slowly started to panic, not from the thought of being dragged underwater and running out of breath, but the cold and lack of oxygen to his lungs is what had gotten to him first. His mentor jumped into the pool after him, when he hadn't come up in minutes. His first lesson of the day: _erase all fear; fear is what gets you killed_.

Bubbles escaped from his lips, he knew if he spent any more time underwater the baby would likely die. He started to kick to the surface, his body slicing through the water as he clutched the baby to his chest. He broke through the surface of the river; his lungs were burning as he gulped down huge amounts of air. The baby started to wail, and he said a quick, silent prayer, he was glad that his luck hadn't run out or at least there were some small miracles working in his favor. The current of the river was pulling at him fast as he struggled to stay afloat, he looked to the distance; the bridge had to have been no more than 25 meters away. He had to move quickly, he knew how quickly the cops moved in situations such as these. They probably had already called for helicopters and boats to search the river, so he quickly had to get to shore.  He let the current sweep him away until he felt the strength of it dying down, he sliced through the water, quickly arriving on a grassy shore, his legs collapsed beneath him as he sank down on the grass. The baby was shaking and crying in the bundle of blankets that were wrapped around it. Levi's shoulder throbbed in pain; he pushed back his jacket and the hem of his shirt, exposing his cold skin to the even colder northern Germany air. There was a small gaping wound in his shoulder, no doubt from a .22 round, he would live.

He sat in the grass, catching his breath for a bit, before the unmistakable sound of chopper engines pierced the air. Fuck. The baby seemed to wail even louder, he guessed there was no rest for the weary. He had to keep moving, he thought to himself as he scooped up the baby in his arms and disappeared into the German suburbia.

 

“You kidnapped a baby!” Levi winced in pain as Hanji extracted the bullet from his shoulder; she dumped the shell onto the kitchen counter. The baby was currently happily gurgling in Erwin's arms, one small baby hand wrapped around his index finger and the other wrapped around the key.

“I didn't exactly have a choice, the job was bad, and Grisha was already dead by the time I got there.” Levi glared at Erwin. “The mom and the kid were still there, she was calling the cops. I didn't know what to do.”

“So the mother's dead?” Erwin asked.

“Yes.”

Eren gurgled happily, as he stuck Erwin's finger into his mouth. Erwin smiled, “I should never have sent you on that job Levi.”

Levi glared at Hanji who was now sewing his wound shut. “Really? What makes you think that?”

“I did some digging after you left for Germany; the job seemed fishy, so I decided to reassure myself of any lingering doubts I held.”

“And did you find anything?”

“The dead body of my informant...and this.” Erwin reached into the breast pocket of his suit and extracted a thin piece of paper; it was creased as if it had been folded over multiple times. Levi got up from the bar stool, and walked towards Erwin, plucking the paper from his hand. He unfolded it and looked it over. _We're watching you_ , was scrawled on the paper in thick, black ink. At the bottom of the paper there was a hand crushing the letter T in the middle of its palm. “What is this?”

“I asked around. No one knows who or what it is. Though I did get one piece of information from an associate of mine.” Erwin pulled his finger from Eren's mouth and stared at Levi. His eyes were grave and his face and his lips pressed into a thin, flat line. “We all need to watch our backs. That goes for you as well Levi.” Eren began to wail.

Hanji scoffed at all of this talk, “there’s no need to go about and make Levi piss his pants Erwin.” She slapped Levi on his shoulder, causing him to cringe a bit. Hanji crouched down on her knees and pinched Eren's cheek. “Look how cute he is. What are we going to do with him?” Erwin and Hanji looked at Levi.

“No.” He could see their eyes shining.

“Levi.” They were pleading with him now.

“I'm not keeping the baby.”

“Levi, obviously you don't understand the direness of this situation. Did you watch the news?” Erwin said.

Levi motioned to his shoulder, “obviously I was shot and in pain Erwin, toting around a baby while trying to escape from Germany. Of course I had fuckin time to watch the news.”

Erwin ignored him and reached towards the black lacquer coffee table and snatched up the television remote, he turned it on and set it to a late night broadcast.

 

A logo flashed across the screen for a few brief seconds as the Chanel's theme played, the logo faded out to open up with a young dark skinned woman. Her hair was set in loose curls that came down to her chest. She stared intently at the camera, and then she began. “Just mere hours ago,” her voice was strong and tinged with a British accent,  “in a small German suburb, the Yeager family was brutally murdered in their home less than forty-eight hours ago, we'll go to Jack, our German correspondent for more information.” The screen faded out again, only to show a shot, filmed earlier in the day of an older man, probably in his mid-thirties holding a microphone close to his before he began to speak. “Thank you Judith, as you can see, we are here in the small suburb of Hildesheim, the place that the Yeager family called home, but that's no longer the case.” The camera zoomed onto the house, capturing the policy activity; two gurneys were being wheeled out of the house, the camera panned back to the reporter. “Earlier today, this sleepy town known for its local cuisine and scenic countryside has become known for something else, the murder of two prominent figures in their respective communities- Grisha Yeager and his wife of seven years Carla. The two were found murdered in their home when police arrived on the scene after receiving a call from this residence. The police report that a mysterious man fled the house with the couple's two-month-old son and jumped into the river that runs through Hildesheim and expands to a large part of Germany. The German police have dispatched helicopters and the coast guard to search the river and surrounding areas for this mystery assailant.

The police ask that if you see this man or the baby that you please contact German authorities.”

The newscast switched back to the dark skinned woman, “thank you, Jack.” She turned her gaze to the camera. “As this horrific murder of the Yeager family unfolds, our station is assured to bring you the latest news. Tune in tonight at ten for a special coverage of Grisha Yeager and his wife Carla. Now let's have a look at the weather.” The news cut to the local weather, warning of a large storm that was approaching the European continent.

Levi folded his arms in front of his chest. He never should have taken this job. “I can't exactly keep the baby Erwin. Taking care of a baby and being an assassin are two very different jobs.”

Erwin stared down at the baby in his arms, Eren's eyes were drooping and his mouth opened widely as he yawned. “Looks like Eren is getting tired.” Erwin stood up from the couch and handed the baby to Levi. Levi glared down at the small baby that was squirming in his arms. “I'll leave you here with the baby; we'll talk about what you'll do tomorrow.” Erwin adjusted his suit and headed towards the door, Levi and Hanji followed after him.

“What am I going to do with the baby?”

“I'm certain Hanji can help you look after him.”

“Me!?” Hanji pointed at herself, “Erwin I'm no good at taking care of babies. I really think we should find someone else.”

Erwin raised his brows, “and risk the chance that that person will turn Levi in for having kidnapped a baby? I don't think so. Besides, both of you'll be fine.” Erwin bid both of them goodbye and left the apartment. A sharp cry pierced the air as Eren's face scrunched up and he wailed. Levi glared at the baby; he stared at Hanji, who was slowly inching her way to the door.

“Where do you think you're going?”

Hanji spun on the soles of her feet and gave Levi a sheepish grin; she scratched the back of her neck. “You don't have any supplies for the baby, so I was just going to go get some.” Eren was squirming feebly in his arms as he continued to wail. “Besides, you look like you have this whole situation under wraps, so I'm just gonna leave and buy some stuff.”

“Wait-” She made a quick dash for the door and was out before he could finish his sentence. “Four-eyed bastard.” He muttered under his breath, causing Eren to wail louder. Levi wanted to do the same with him.

 

**December 21 st **

Three hours later, the sky was a light haze of pink and pale gold, and Levi was having his first cup of coffee for the morning. He leaned his back against the kitchen counter, the steaming cup of coffee pressed against his lips; he took a sip and watched as Hanji bounced Eren up and down on her knee as she murmured baby babble at him.

He glanced at his watch; it was nearly six. Erwin should have contacted them a while ago. “Hanji.”

“Hmm?” She glanced at him, still bouncing Eren on her knee.

“Has Erwin contacted you yet?”

She looked off into the distance, contemplating this for a moment. “No, but he could just be enjoying the company of a woman...or a man...or maybe both.”

Levi took another sip of his coffee. It was painful for him to swallow the liquid; it felt like a rock was shoved down his throat and crashed down into stomach, creating an anxious, restless feeling inside of him. The same feeling he had in Germany. This was nothing for him to get concerned over. Erwin not contacting him exactly when he was supposed to wasn't that big of a deal. It might be like Hanji said; maybe he was just indisposed at the moment and couldn’t contact them.

 

Four hours had passed and neither Levi nor Hanji had heard anything from Erwin. Levi had smoked through half a pack before he decided to call Erwin's cell and got nothing but the voicemail. He called again, nearly 5 minutes after that, and after his second call as well, and then after that one, and that too. All of his calls had gone to voicemail. “Oi, Erwin! You sack of shit. Answer your phone or I actually might kill you this time.” Levi ended the call and smacked the phone down on the counter.

“Did you get him?” Hanji pulled her own phone away from her ear and shook her head. He swore he was going to put a bullet in Erwin's kneecap when he found him. “I'll get the car then, we're going to the office.”

 

The car screeched to halt in front of the immaculate building. Men donning expensive business suits streamed in and out of the building. Levi got out of the car, and stared up at the building. It was a massive tower of steel, glass, and gold. J&E sons, an associate law firm that only top notch, elite college alumni's found themselves working at. Set in the heart of the city, the firm was like an all see eye. You could see everywhere across the city and no place was left unseen; there was no blind spot for this building.

“Wow!” Hanji exclaimed, giving a low whistle as she got out of the car. “I can't believe the office is in this place.” She placed her hand on the blankets covering Eren's head.

“Please, you've been here before.”

“Well those times I was a little more occupied on the tower in Erwin’s pants than the one we were entering.” She flashed a smile at Levi who in return smirked at her.

They made their way into the building; it was immaculate and well-furnished inside as it was outside. They walked past security and the receptionist; none of whom had barely given the odd trio a glance. A security guard, no doubt a recently hired one, spotted them and stepped forward to ask them no doubt, where their ID was. A senior security guard grabbed him by the arm and shook his head. The younger security guard gave Levi and Haji a nervous glance and looked away when Levi’s eyes met his. In this line of business if you were a witness it was better that you pretended to know nothing and erase it from your memory than actually think about it and questioning it.

Knowledge is what got you dead in the first place, if it was better to remain naïve and know nothing. Then he would rather choose the option that left you with your life.

They made their way towards the elevators and stepped in, pressing the button for the last floor of the building. The 60th floor, the one that had been out of decommission for years due to the department on that floor being shut down, but the floor was never completely cleared of all its inhabitants.

Levi leaned against the rail in the elevator, watching the numbers on the monitor climb rapidly. What was he going to find? He thought to himself as the elevator started to slow down. If Erwin was dead, Levi was going to put a bullet in him himself for having ended up as a cold corpse. He drummed his fingers on the rail. That taught feeling that had been present since this morning returned. The elevator slowed to a grinding halt and slowly opened out into a dark hallway. That was strange, very strange. Erwin always kept the floor brightly lit.

"Levi," Hanji said, she too sensed something was wrong. He laid a single finger across his lips as he pulled the Browning from out of the waistband of his jeans. He held it in front of him. "Wait here. Keep Eren safe." He told Hanji as he slowly stalked out of the elevator. The hallway was dark as Levi stepped into it, he had been here so many times that he could remember what the layout of this floor was like even without the lights on, but something was up. He was sure about that. Erwin's office door was the third on the right. He made his way slowly to it, making as little sound as possible. The door was slightly ajar, a thin stream of light trickled from the room. Levi cocked his head to the side and listened closely.

There were footsteps. The sound of filing cabinets being pulled open and boxes being knocked over and rifled through. What was going on? Levi walked closer towards the door, pressing his back against the wall; he checked his gun and flicked back the hammer. He peered through the thin sliver in the door; he saw the broad back of a man in front of him who was undoubtedly guarding the door.

He waited. Pointed his gun at the back of the assailants head and pulled the trigger. "What the fu-" the body dropped to the floor, he wasted no time. He threw the door and rushed into the room. There four men in there, one was fumbling for the shotgun he had left on the floor. Levi had to be quick about this; he aimed at the man's arm and took the shot. He heard a grunt of pain as that man went down. Someone grabbed him from behind; he drew his arm back, his elbow connecting with soft flesh. Those end wrapped around him loosened and he broke free, he spun around grabbed the guy’s arm and raised his leg, it connected with his arm and he could hear the snap of a bone. He turned his head and saw one man coming after him and the other rushing towards the shotgun on the floor. He reached down to his left boot and withdrew the long, slim knife he hid there. He gripped the hilt of the knife and tossed it at the man running for the shotgun; it struck him in the shoulder. He quickly aimed at the guy running towards him. He pulled the trigger. The bullet struck him dead center in the chest and he too collapsed to the floor. “Erwin what the hell did you get yourself into?”

Erwin shrugged at Levi. His right eye was swollen shut and it was difficult for him to see out of his left as well with all the blood dripping down into it from the gash on his forehead. His legs and wrists were bound to the office chair and his mouth was gagged with a thin strip of cloth. “Mmmnh-mnnnmh.” He said.

Levi rolled his eyes as he moved closer towards Erwin. “I really should just leave you like this.” Erwin glared at him. “Don't glare at me like that. I know you have a thing for this type of thing.” He yanked the strip of cloth out of Erwin's mouth.

“Levi!” Hanji strolled into the room, her brows rising as she spotted the dead men lying on the floor along with the ones who were still living and groaning in pain. She stepped over the dead body near the door.

“I thought I told you to stay in the elevator.” He said as he untied Erwin's wrists and ankles. Erwin sighed as he rubbed at his wrists. “Thanks for that Levi.” He got to his feet unsteadily and strode over to the man that Levi had thrown his knife at. Erwin bent down, grabbed the man by his shoulders, and flipped him over only to grab him by the collar of his shirt. The man had blood bubbling out of his mouth; he chuckled as Erwin drew back a fist. He landed a hard punch across his cheek, the man’s neck whipped to the side, he groaned in pain as the soft sound of cartilage crunching filled the room. "Who sent you?" Erwin planted another blow across his face. "Who sent you?" The man simply laughed, blood was trickling from his broken nose and bubbled across his mouth, it coated the bottom half of his face. He stared at Erwin with eyes glassy and distant as if he was staring at him and through him all at once. "Titans." He whispered and then his eyes bulged out of his head and he started to spasm and shake. Erwin bounced up and moved away from him. Hanji shoved Eren into Levi's arm and quickly raced over towards the man, his body bounced off the floor as the spasms became more violent. He opened his mouth and blood flew from his lips, his eyes were bulging out of his head. She bended down and touched his jaw, but it was too late. The spasms stopped and suddenly the man went still.

Hanji frowned down at the body. She reached into the dead man's pocket and withdrew a thin strip of paper that had been folded over several times. She unfolded it and her face paled.

“Hanji, what is it?” Erwin asked.

She turned the paper over and held it up for Erwin and Levi to see. _Run._ There was the same logo at the bottom of the paper, that all of them had seen earlier on the note that Erwin had found on the dead informant’s body. The letter T being crushed in the palm of a hand.

It felt like the world was slowing down again. Like Levi wasn't here, in the aftermath of a fight in Erwin's office, but instead drowning beneath the German river in that small town, bullets whizzing past him in the water. He was drowning and suddenly there wasn't enough air to keep him going.

 

They were all back at his apartment. Eren was sucking down a bottle of formula while Hanji was tending to Erwin’s wounds. Levi held Eren close to his chest, watching him suckle down the formula. The room was quite, something all of them needed right now.

None of them were sure of whom to trust. What to do. Weather it was safe to be anywhere other than this apartment right now. The doorbell rang, causing Hanji to jump out of her skin. “It's probably the pizza.” She said, grabbing the large kitchen knife, she had placed on the counter, she moved slowly towards the apartment door. Peering out of the peephole, she unlatched the door and opened it, quickly hiding the knife behind her back.

 “Two large pizzas for a Zoë?” Hanji slipped a twenty out of her pocket, handed it to the pizza man, and grabbed the pizzas out of his hand. “Keep the tip.” She said as she quickly shut the door and placed the latch back in its place. She placed the pizza boxes and the kitchen knife back on the counter and went back to tending Erwin’s wounds. Levi withdrew the bottle from Eren's mouth and placed it on the coffee table. He held Eren against his chest and patted him against the back until he burped. Eren giggled.

Levi felt himself smiling and knew that Erwin and Hanji were doing the same. This kid was slowly starting to grow on him.

“Who wants to eat?” Hanji asked as she stepped away from Erwin and headed towards the cabinets, withdrawing three plates. Levi wasn't hungry at all. Hanji was smiling and fidgeting around with the things in the kitchen. She opened a pizza box and shut it again, before getting anything. “I'm not hungry.” She set the plates down and moved towards Erwin taking a seat beside him on the sofa. They sat in silence for a moment. “What are we going to do?” She was the only one who phrased the question they were all thinking. She held up her hands in front of her. “I mean, these guys definitely aren't coming after me, but what are you guys going to do?”

Erwin sighed; he raked his hand through his hair. He looked older than he had merely a day ago. There were more lines around his eyes, bags underneath them and there was stubble on his jaw. “I can understand your concerns Hanji. But with what I'm planning to do, you have the rights to back out-” he stared at Eren who grabbing the collar of Levi's shirt, his eyes flicked up towards Levi's face and he stared for a hard second. “I think it's time I retire and I think the same goes for you as well Levi.”

Levi stared at Erwin; his face betrayed little of what he thought. “Why?”

“Whoever killed Grisha and set you up to take the blame, is making sure they tie up all of their loose ends. You saw that today Levi. If you hadn't shown up at the moment you did I definitely would be dead right now. We don't know anything about these people, much less who they are or even what. We're playing this game blind and it’s bad enough that we don't know the game we're playing, but we can't even see the player. I'm retiring, it's better for me to walk away now while I have the chance. I don't know about you two, but I intend on staying alive for a little while longer.”

Levi looked away from Erwin. He could understand were the man was coming from, they knew nothing about this group. They knew nothing about who they were, where they were located, much less their numbers or access to firepower. Like Erwin said, they were playing this game blind and he wasn't too certain what this game held in store for him if he were to lose. A cry from Eren caused him to look down at the small baby in his arms. His grip around the baby had gotten tight; he loosened his grip and pressed his forehead against the baby's. He was playing a game blind, a game he wasn't too sure that he was even playing correctly. Eren reached up with his small hands and pressed a hand to his cheek. He smiled to himself as he stared into Eren's eyes. “I've made my decision.” He whispered. “I'm retiring.”

Erwin aimed his gaze at Hanji. She shook her head and waved her hands in front of her earnestly. “Like I said, this group has an issue with you two not me.”

Erwin nodded, “that’s fine. I can give a call to some handlers; they can take of finding jobs for you-”

Hanji cut him off, “these guys may not have an issue with me, but not having you two around would be pretty boring. Besides what would I do without you two perfect test subjects. I also would miss Eren as well.” At the sound of his name, Eren perked up and giggled again.

Erwin nodded, “then it's decided.”

 

**January 1 st **

The air was warm here.

Not exactly the warmth one would feel during spring, but warmer than a typical day like this would usually be. Levi leaned against the car; his eyes were hidden behind the black shades he was wearing. There were a few people out and about this noon. Parents with children, couples and a few seniors.

It had been so many years since he had been in this city; the day he left, he had never really looked back. He stared up at the sky; a few snowflakes were coming down now, making the air slightly colder than it had been a few moments ago. The air was crisp as it was apt to be here. He turned on his heel and opened the car door, sliding into the driver's seat.

The car engine roared to life and he peeled away from the curb. The drive to his home wasn't too far away from the _centre-ville_ area. His hand idly gripped the steering wheel, as he glanced at the streets as he drove by. Everything seemed to have remained the same, but there were a few minor changes. That corner store had once been a candy shop now housed a bakery. There were more apartments along the streets, but the buildings they resided in hadn't changed. His eyes flickered to the back seat every so often, checking on the sleeping passenger that rested there. He drove through the heart of the city, before the gaps between each building got larger and the thick trees, foliage and fauna became more frequent.

Levi pulled up in front of a modern three-story house; a black iron gate ringed the perimeter. A large oak tree in the front yard, reached towards the sky. A swing set hung from one of its branches, he smiled to himself, remembering the days when he used to swing from there. He killed the engine to the car; he stepped out and closed the driver’s door behind him, before moving to back door, dipping inside and retrieving the sleeping baby. He shut the car door and made his way towards the black iron gate. He reached out and grasped one of the bars in his hand, before hesitating for a moment. He pushed the gate open and walked across the cobbled walkway. He reached the steps and clambered up them, before stopping on the porch. He took a deep breath and knocked on the door. A few rapid knocks, before letting his arm fall to his side.

He waited...and waited. He seemed to have been standing on the front porch for an eternity before the door was wrenched open. An older man stood at the front door, he was slim and tall, there was a short beard along his jaw and short, coarse hair that came down to his neck. There were more wrinkles around his eyes than Levi had remembered there being, but that gave him a soft expression. The man's eyes widened as he spotted Levi on his porch. "Levi." That name spilled from his mouth, a heavy French accent caressed his name.

" _Salut, papa. Je suis rentré."_


	3. Lies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains a NSFW LeviHan moment close to the end of the chapter. So please, if you are extremely uncomfortable with that pairing or reading a graphic sexual scene please feel free to skip it.

**February 10th**

   

He was having the same dream again. The dream had been occurring for a while now; it was the same thing over and over again. Like a film, permanently stuck on repeat with an ending you knew would always be the same.

The water around him surrounded him like a blanket. It was pitch black and inky; he could barely see anything around him, no matter how much he twisted his body and turned his head. The darkness never escaped, it was permanent, and a present force.

He didn't realize he wasn't breathing until his lungs felt like they were being scorched with hot irons. Wasn't that ironic? Two elements that were never supposed to mix and yet he was here, drowning under all this water. He struggled to breath, a thin stream of bubbles escaped from betwixt his lips. His body felt numb and cold all over, but it also felt like he was floating in a void, that the water around him wasn't there. It felt like it was a hallucination, that all this around him was nothing more than a dream. However, suddenly he was falling deeper and deeper, the darkness started to lighten as he fell further and further. There was a soft, warm pool of light behind him that was growing in size as he fell towards it.

Falling into that pool of light changed him. His mouth fell straight open as he suddenly felt that he could breathe, his lungs felt clear. He felt like he was floating on top of water. He snapped his eyes shut briefly and when he opened them again, this time there was a small black circle a few meters from his face. Something about it disturbed him, it felt unnatural, like it was Pandora's box. He was tempted to open it, to peek inside, see what secrets were in there.

He frowned, as his name was being called from a distance. It was faint, but it was there. His name was being called again, this time it was louder. The black circle above him rippled, it took on the shape of multiple hands, pressing against it like it was a thin film of plastic. The hands were pushing against it with all their might, as if they were trying to break through. He winced as whoever was calling his name now was screaming it. It felt so loud now; he pressed the palms of his hands against his ears as the voice got louder and louder. The black circle above him was pierced through as a pair of hands reached down towards him.

"No!" He shouted as the hands pressed against his cheeks. Something was coming out, he suddenly felt afraid. It felt like fear was being written down into every inch of his bone. " _Eren_ ," the voice screamed, his eyes went wide as whatever thing was in that black circle started to pull itself through. _I don't want to see this. I don't want to see this. I don't want to see this._ Those words played repeatedly in his head. His eyes went wide as he stared at the face. " _Eren_!" It rushed at him as he screamed aloud.

Eren bolted into an upright position in bed, his bed sheets were tangled in between his legs. The white cotton shirt and boxers he wore to bed were soaked in sweat and clung to him like a second skin. He shakily raised a hand to his head and raked it through his hair, pushing his bangs away from his face. What was that? He had never experienced something like that before, it was odd and way beyond any of the normal dreams, he experienced.

He could hear footsteps on the stairs. He pressed his face into his hands and swallowed thickly as a rapid series of knocks were made on his bedroom door. The door slowly opened as his father poked his head into the room. "Eren, _es-tu_ _é_ _veill_ _é_ _?_ " His father's brows creased together when he noted his lack of response. " _Es-tu malade_ _?_ " He entered the room and quickly made his way to the bed pushed against the length of the wall, wrinkling his nose at the dirty articles of clothing littering the bedroom floor.

Eren looked up at his father as he took a seat on the bed. His father hadn't changed much in either appearance or height since Eren had been a young child. His father still sported his infamous undercut and still retained the same features he had since he hit adulthood, though there were a few creases around his eyes. However, Eren was never one to point that out to his father, and left that task for his aunt and uncle. His father rested his hand on the back of Eren's neck, pulling him forward until their foreheads touched.

"You don't have a fever." Levi stared intently into Eren's eyes. "So that still means you're going to school." Levi got up from the bed, "hurry up and get dressed and go brush your teeth. Breakfast is on the table."

Eren watched as his father left his room, closing the door softly behind him. Eren sighed, as he pushed himself out of bed. Stripping off his shirt, he went to his drawers and withdrew a shirt, a pair of jeans and boxers that were actually clean. He put them on, grabbed a bottle of cologne, and sprayed that on himself. He headed out of his bedroom and towards the bathroom.

He turned the tap and watched as cold water gurgled out of the pipe.  Eren grabbed his toothbrush and slathered it with toothpaste. He began to brush his teeth, his mind turning back to his dream. The face of that woman from his dream was on the forefront of his mind. When she had appeared, a sense of familiarity had washed over Eren, but her features were hazy. He would have to remember to draw her later. He thought as he spat into the sink.

He walked into kitchen, spotting his father sitting at the table drinking his third cup of coffee that morning was a welcoming sight; he took a seat across from his father at their kitchen table. His father was staring down at the newspaper set before him. Eren glanced at it, the paper was written in Arabic script and he wasn't too confident that he could read it. Speaking it was a whole other matter, he thought as he picked up the slice of toast and slathered it with jam and butter before taking a bite.

His father had made sure that by the time he was able to string a sentence together that he was educated in multiple languages. His father would converse with him in French, English, Chinese, or Arabic. Depending on his mood for the day and whichever language he believed his son needed to strengthen. His father was a strange man, he wasn't too talkative and never liked to discuss much about himself, but Eren loved him the same. Levi took a long sip of his coffee, before he spoke.

"I won't be here when you come back from school. Your grandfather will be here later to look after you."

"What!? Why does grand-père have to look after me? I'm old enough to look after myself." His father smiled as he placed down his half-empty mug and reached across the table to tussle up Eren's already messy hair.

"Don't argue with me. Now hurry up and eat your breakfast before you're late for school." Eren rolled his eyes as he dug into his breakfast with a great gusto.

 

" _Salut, papa_!" Eren shouted as he tossed his bag over his shoulder. He rushed down the steps and raced across the yard. Levi watched him leave from the front door. Eren turned back and waved goodbye to him, before going through the gate and racing for the metro. Levi smiled as he waved goodbye to his son. He waited a few seconds after Eren had left his sight, before fishing his cellphone out of his back pocket, he tapped once on a single number after the keypad had popped up on the screen and pressed the phone to his ear. He didn't need to wait too long as the call was picked up on the first ring.

"He left. I'm heading to Paris. I'll see you there in a few." He hung up and walked inside the house, shutting the front door behind him.

 

" _Good morning, Eren._ "

" _Ahh, good morning, Uncle Erwin_." Eren replied to the greeting in French. He knew he was going to get a scolding from his uncle for the improper title, especially since they were both at school and Erwin was respectfully Eren's principal. Erwin smiled at him, waving him along as he greeted the other students who were making their way through the school gates.

" _Eren_!" A loud voice called out, before he felt an arm slip around his neck. He elbowed Jean in the side of his ribs, pushing away from him.

" _What do you want horse face_?" Eren turned to look at Jean and saw Mikasa and Armin running up behind them both.

" _Good morning, Mikasa. Armin._ " Armin replied and Mikasa gave him a curt nod.

Eren had friends; he was a social creature. His friend Jean was a year older than he was and acted more like a mentor and older brother towards Eren and his friends. Eren nearly gagged when he watched Jean stare at Mikasa with hearts in his eyes.  Did he mention that Jean had a very noticeable crush on Mikasa?

Mikasa had moved to Nantes when she was six. She wore her hair long and down to her back, she looked entirely like her mother who was a sweet Vietnamese woman. Her father was French-Canadian and Mikasa had grown up speaking the French languages cousin for as long as she remembered. The first time Eren had met her had been a total frustration, just speaking to her had sounded like she was stuck in the past.

Armin was the intellectual genius of the trio. He was raised by his grandfather after the death of his parents in a car crash, but turned out okay and made up for all the rationality and logic that both Mikasa and he lacked.

They walked further into until they stepped into the high school where Jean bid them a farewell when he spotted his classmate Marco, whom he was undoubtedly going to smooth talk into giving him the answers to their calculus class's homework.

 _"Eren! Are you listening to me? Eren!"_ Eren blinked, surprised to find himself out of their classroom. Mikasa's hands were pressed into his shoulders, he could see a glint of worry in her eyes on her usually stoic appearance.

_"I'm fine, just thinking about a nightmare I had."_

_"Did you get enough sleep?"_ Eren nodded, he didn't need Mikasa to be worried about him.

The trio walked into their classroom and took their seats. Eren near the window, Mikasa in the middle of the room and Armin in the front. Mademoiselle Ral or Petra as she liked to be called by all of her students stood at the front of the room. Mademoiselle Petra was the school's French literature teacher; she was respected by everyone and considered to be somewhat of an idol at the school.

Eren stared out the window, there were clouds slowly rolling across the blue sky and leaves in the trees were dancing as a slight breeze disturbed them. He watched as a pair of birds flew out of a nest they had made on a tree branch and flew into the sky. He watched them for a few seconds, before turning his attention back to the class.

 

He waved goodbye to Armin and Mikasa who had class periods right now, as he walked towards the series of lounge-like rooms were all students went if they had a free period to do whatever they wished, weather it was studying for a test or taking the entire time to read. Eren pushed open the door, dumping his book bag onto the floor; he withdrew his sketchpad and a pencil case from it and sat down on one of the numerous beanbags in the room. He could feel himself sinking into the plush material of the beanbag as he settled himself in to draw from the next half an hour. Eren placed his pencil case on the floor next to him and the sketchpad on his lap. Unzipping the pencil case he retrieved his favorite mechanical pencil, he liked the feeling of it in his hand. He clicked the bottom of the pencil, watching as lead rose to the tip. He took a deep breath as he pressed the lead tip against the blank sheet of paper and began to draw.

He envisioned the outline of the head, first. The lead swept across the paper, lying down thin, smooth lines. With each line he drew, the more he fell deeper and deeper into the picture. It was how he worked on everything he drew; his father told him that he was passionate about his work and that when he was passionate, he became extremely focused on the task at hand. His father told him that was a good thing to have, but that it was also dangerous and could end up costing him his life. His pencil stilled as that exact choice of words caused him to frown. He shrugged it off as the strange mutterings of his father. His father was weird, secretive in nature; he never really liked to talk to Eren about his own past or much that about the identity of Eren’s mother.

He remembered that he had been no more than 5 or 6 years old. There was a school assignment that day, were the children had been required to write about their mother’s and father’s. Eren had come home and sat down on his father’s lap as he had told him about his job in the IT industry. Eren was too young at the time, to have really understood all the complexities of the words his father had told him. All he knew was that his father designed software for some company and made sure things ran smoothly in the company and that’s why he got paid an extreme amount of money, though they never really showed it, not by their generic clothing or their modest three story house or even his father’s 2004 Ford. When Eren had asked about his mother however, it had been entirely different. His father had stilled, it was very brief, but Eren had felt it.

His father had told him that his mother had been an exotic woman from some far away country, he had never heard of and a name he could never pronounce. This was in an attempt to explain Eren’s slightly darker complexion compared to other French kids. His father and mother had been together very briefly, and had never met each other for a long time afterward. Until one day when he had opened, his apartment door after the bell rang and was shocked to see Eren left in front of his door, swaddled in baby clothes with a note attached to his clothes. After that, his father had never mentioned his mother again and any time Eren attempted to bring up the subject. His father would refuse to talk or changed the subject entirely.

Eren had barely noticed the ringing of the bell, much less when Mikasa and Armin had come into the room, calling his name.

 _“_ _Eren!_ _”_ Eren was jolted out of his art infused trance as Mikasa stood above him, with her hands on her hips.

 _“_ _Mikasa? What are you doing here? Don_ _’_ _t you have class right now?_ _”_ Eren stared at her with a confused expression on his face. His back was killing him and his wrist was throbbing.

_“_ _It_ _’_ _s lunch right now. Armin and I came to get you._ _”_

Eren was shocked by the time, as he pulled out his phone and glanced at the time. He stood up, the sketch pad fell to the floor. Armin reached down and picked it up; he studied the picture.

 _“_ _This is amazing, Eren. Who is this?_ _”_ Armin turned the sketchpad around for Eren to see.

Eren glanced at his work. It was a woman; her hair was tussled and appeared as if it was being caressed by the wind. Her eyes were full of laughter and there was a smile on her lips that seemed to reach her eyes. Eren suddenly felt tears springing up to his eyes. It felt like he knew the woman all at once, but she was a stranger to him.

 _“_ _I don_ _’_ _t know._ _”_ He replied, and for some reason that made him incredibly sad.

 

Levi thanked the barista as they set down a cup of Americano in front of him. It wasn’t his favorite, but this café didn’t exactly have straight black. Besides Levi liked to make his coffee for himself, anyone else made it and it felt like he was swallowing down a lead bullet. He didn’t know how that felt, but he wasn’t too keen on trying. Levi had done a quick sweep of the shop in the first minute he had stepped into the café. It was an old habit, but he’d rather not let this habit die or else he might end up dying. The bell above the door of the café let out a soft tinkle as the door opened for a few brief seconds, letting in warm air and then swung shut. Levi could hear the soft tap of running shoes against the wooden floor as he took a sip of the overly sweet Americano. He could hear the scrape of a chair across from him and that’s when he looked up and offered the person a small smile.

“It’s good to see you.” He spoke in English. He doubted anyone in here; spoke fluent English, maybe a few words, but hardly enough to keep up with his conversation if they were listening. Besides everyone in here seemed to be focused on whatever work they brought with them or their own cups of coffee.

Hanji smiled at him, she shoved a bag across the table. “Give that to Eren.” Levi took the bag and rifled through it, it was full of Xbox video games. He shot her a dirty look. “What? I have to spoil my nephew from time to time.”

Levi leaned back into his chair. Hanji hadn’t changed much since the last time he saw her, about a year ago, to be exact. Her hair was longer, but she kept it all up in a ponytail and aside from that, she was still the same.

“What did you want to talk about?” Levi asked, as he took sip of the appalling coffee.

Hanji leaned forward. Placing her elbows on the table, she laced her fingers together. “The German police are reopening the case for the Yeager murders.” Levi stilled, placing the coffee cup back onto the wooden table. “You know what that means though? If they’re reopening the murder investigations, then they’re also going to reopen the kidnapping case as well. I don’t think I need to tell you this Levi, but you need to watch your back more carefully than you ever did before.”

Levi snorted, “what do you think I’ve been doing for the past 16 years?”

Hanji let out a brisk laugh. “I know that, I’ve watched you raise him.” She unlaced her fingers and slid a hand across the table; grasping Levi’s in her own, she gave it a squeeze. “You’re an incredible father and you’ve raised him to be a remarkable boy.”

He stared at her lips, suddenly developing the urge to kiss them.

“Why don’t we get out of here.” He had never heard of a greater idea.

 

Her mouth was on him as soon as he had kicked the door shut. He slipped his arms around her waist as he pulled away from her lips, his own moving towards her jaw were he nipped at the flesh. She gasped in pleasure, as his lips moved down her neck, were he sucked, licked, and bit her flesh until it turned into a masterpiece of marks and hickey’s. Her hands were all over. They were on his neck, his shoulders, and his back. She was frantically freeing him of his jacket as they made it further in the room and then the next his belt. She laughed when he dumped her on the bed and pinned her down, grinding their hips together as he kissed her lips all over again.

She wiggled underneath him, and in the blink of an eye, he was on his back and she was on top of him, straddling his hips. She gave him a smirk as she slid off him and onto the floor. She placed her mouth over the bulge in his jeans and stared at him, her eyes a hazy mist of lust and merriment. She gripped the zipper of his jeans between her teeth and pulled it down…slowly. Oh god, he was aching for her mouth. She laughed, breathily when she heard him whine. That only seemed to spur her on as she undid the button of his jeans in the same manner. He lifted his hips allowing her to pull down his jeans and boxers; she tossed them over her shoulder. She lifted his penis into her hand and gave in a broad lick, from the base to the tip. She smiled as she let the tip of her tongue swirl around the tip of his head, drawing a long hiss of pleasure from him. He groaned as she took him into her mouth. It was warm, wet, and pleasurable. His hands tangled themselves in her hair, which he was grateful for that she had decided to let loose. He could feel her smile around his cock in her mouth as she bobbed her head up on the down it. He let his mind focus on the feeling of her mouth as he groaned and gasped in pleasure. He could feel the pleasure in his groin, being compressed and tightened into a coil. He tapped her cheek with a single finger and she released him from her mouth with a wet plop. Her clothing was off by the time he had a condom on himself. He grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her closer to him, pressing a kiss to her lips; he parted them with his tongue and delved further into her mouth. His fingers raked over skin. Massaging her breasts and rolling her perk nipples between his thumb and index. He could taste her gasps and moans as his fingers lightly ghosted down her skin, until they reached her moist center. She pulled away from him, breaking the kiss as his fingers rubbed against her lips, he could feel her legs shaking as juices spilled out from between her lips. He coated his fingers in them and slowly dragged his fingers up, until they came to rest at her clit. He pressed his fingers against it, rubbing slow circles into the bundles of nerves.

She gasped beneath him, her back arched off the bed and her breasts pressed against his chests. She gasped and moaned in staccato as he picked up the rhythm, rubbing faster and pressing against her harder. Her arms wrapped around his neck as she released a shout of pleasure. He could her whole body shuddering against his as her lower regions twitched in enjoyment.

He gripped himself in his hand and lined himself up at her hole; he pushed his hips forward slowly, until he was buried inside of her. He waited and then he began to thrust forward. She screamed out in pleasure as he lifted her legs and placed them over his shoulder, causing him to thrust deeper and harder inside of her. He was like a beast, as he thrust wildly inside of her, the hotel bed shaking and smacking into the wall as they both shared into the pleasure together. He thrust like a madman inside of her, a madman who had only an hour left on Earth. He squeezed his eyes shut, knowing that he was coming close.

He slipped his hand between her legs and rubbed her clit furiously as he thrust inside of her. Her legs shook as another orgasm coursed through her body. His hips smacked against her for the last final times, before he stilled. He groaned aloud as he could feel his seed spilling from himself. He pulled himself out of her and rolled off the condom, tying it up, before he tossed it into the hotel trashcan.

“That was great,” Hanji, muttered in post sexual bliss, her chest was rising and falling as she gulped down air.

Levi raked a hand through his now sweat soaked hair, “tell me about it.”

 

Eren walked through the front door. His vision was blinded as his grand-père enveloped him in a big hug. His grand-père pulled back, his hands still gripping his shoulders.

 _“_ _Look at you, Eren! You look like you_ _’_ _ve grown!_ _”_ His grand-père smiled at him.

Eren rolled his eyes, _“_ _you saw me last week. I possibly couldn_ _’_ _t have grown since then._ _”_

His grand-père was walking towards the kitchen, _"what do you want to eat? I can make your favorite- Coq au vin."_

 _"I can make my own food_ _grand-p_ _è_ _re_ _."_ Eren loved his grand-père, he was astounded by the fact that Levi and he shared the same blood; they were as different as the sun and the moon. His father was stoic and never talkative. His grand-père was the complete opposite, boisterous man who loved doting on his only grandson. Eren chuckled as he watched his grand-père make for the kitchen.

He really loved his family.

 

**February 11th**

       

 _"Je suis retourn_ _é_ _!"_ Levi called out as he stepped through the front door. His father was the first person to greet him as he walked into the kitchen. "Where's Eren?" He asked, watching as his father pressed a single finger against his lips.

"He's sleeping," his father whispered. "You never go to Paris at such an impromptu time. What did Hanji have to say to you?"

Levi sighed as he shrugged out of his jacket; he walked over to the kitchen chair and draped his jacket on the back before taking a seat. "She told me that the German authorities are reopening the investigation into the Yeager murders." They were both silent for a while until Kenny Ackerman broke the silence.

"Does that mean they're going to look into Eren's kidnapping as well." Levi nodded. "I have some friends left who can turn the investigation in the wrong direction for a while. I can give them a call."

"Please do so." Kenny nodded as he stood up from the table. "Levi. You need to be prepared for the inevitable. The German authorities are like hound dogs, once they catch a scent on the wind, they'll hunt it down until the ends of the Earth. Once they catch your scent on the wind however Levi, it's only a matter of time before they come after you."

 

Levi pushed open the bedroom door; he leaned against the doorframe, watching the rise and fall of his son's chest as he slept. This brought back memories for him; he smiled as he remembered when Eren had caught a fever. It was his first cold and Levi was worried about him, worried about taking him to a hospital if it got serious. Would someone recognize him? Would something go wrong if the doctors were examining him? He had spent the entire night watching over him, until his fever had broken early into the morning. Levi had said a quick prayer of thanks when Eren had woken up in the morning and exclaimed that he wanted pancakes for breakfast that day.

Levi walked into the room; he sat down on the edge of the bed and reached over to the nightstand, turning on the lamp. The room was flooded in a small pool of soft, golden light. Levi looked down at his son's face. Eren looked like a little angel as he slept. His bangs were strewn across his face; Levi swept them off and decided that Eren really needed to get a haircut.

He smiled as he leaned down and pressed a kiss to Eren's forehead, _"fais de beaux r_ _ê_ _ves. Mon petit gar_ _ç_ _on_ _."_ Levi turned to turn off the lamp, his eyes caught on the sketchpad resting on the nightstand. Levi picked it up and flipped through it, picture after picture greeted him. There were a few landscape scenes, some of the ocean and some of some local spots in the city. There were some small realistic portraits of himself and Eren's friends. He stilled as he came to rest on one of Eren's most recent drawings. His grip on the sketchpad tightened as he stared down at the portrait of Carla. It felt like he was back in that house again. It felt like he was standing a few feet away from her, staring into her eyes as she gaped at the dripping wound in her chest.

He turned his gaze to Eren. Did he know who this was? Levi shook his head, Eren was just a baby, he couldn't have possibly remembered what his mother looked like. Levi was startled when Eren started to groan in his sleep. His brows furrowed together and his fingers twitched, before he uttered a word that made Levi's heart skip a beat. _"_ _Maman_ _."_

Levi stared at Eren as he settled back into sleep. He turned off the lamp and stood up from the bed with the sketchpad in his hands; he walked to the door and shut it slowly behind him.

Levi walked down the steps and headed towards the living room. Headed towards the fireplace he moved the grate and started to toss firewood that he kept near the fireplace inside. He tossed the sketchpad in after it and grabbed the matches he left on top of the fireplace, he withdrew one and drew the tip swiftly across the rough, coarser end of the box. He watched as the match burst into flames and tossed it into the fireplace.

Watching the flames, he felt some guilt, but as the pages of the sketchbook started to blacken and curl together, he knew that he was doing what was best. He was doing this for Eren and one day Eren would thank him for it.

 

Eren's eyes snapped open as he sat up in bed. He smacked his lips together as he scratched his chest. He was thirsty, he decided as he swung his legs over the side of the bed and felt his feet touch the cold wooden floors. He stood up from the bed and made his way to the door, he opened it and stepped into the hallway and that's when the scent hit him in the face, like a punch.

The smell of firewood and smoke made his eyes water. He made for the stairs and softly walked down them. He stopped on the steps when he spotted his father's silhouette sitting in the living room. His back was turned to him. The soft blue glow from the TV was the only thing that illuminated the room. His father was sitting on the sofa, flicking through the news channels. Snippets from the news managed to float to his ears.

"German authorities-"

"The reopening of-"

"The murder of the Yeager family and-"

"Kidnapping-"

"Why are you up?" Eren was startled when his father turned around; his face was bathed in the blue glow of the TV. Eren glanced at the television screen, only for his father to quickly change it from a news broadcast to one of the late night programs on TV. The glow from the TV casted his father's features in an eerie manner, his face was defined by hard shadows and soft blue light from the TV. For some reason it frightened him and made his father look nothing like the man, he knew.

"I-I was thirsty. I was just going to go get some water." He watched as his father stared up at him in silence. His stomach broiled with fear.

"Go get your water and go to bed. You have school tomorrow." Eren nodded as he rushed into the kitchen, quickly grabbing a bottle of water, he bid his father goodnight as he rushed back up the stairs and made it to his bedroom. He slowly shut the door, but left it open slightly. He waited as he listened at the crack in the door as his father changed the channel on the TV once more. He could faintly hear a reporter talking on screen.

"The German authorities are planning to reopen the investigation of the Yeager murders. A well-known family that was killed in their home a little over sixteen years ago and whose two-month-old son was kidnapped by an unknown assailant." A chill ran down his spine, he shook his head and placed his bottle of water on the nightstand as he lay down onto his bed. He was shaking, he realized as he stared up into the darkness. He swallowed thickly, there was nothing to be afraid of, he told himself as he felt his eyes drooping and settled into a deep sleep.


	4. Some Secrets are Worth Burying

**February 11th**

He was panicking.

Levi could hear the crash of Eren's footsteps upstairs as he ran barefoot across his room. He took a sip of his coffee as he turned to the next page in his newspaper. This time it was in German. He stopped at a long article written on the third page. The title was what had caught his eye.

_A decade old murder and kidnapping case being re-investigated by German authorities._

He quickly glanced at the article, gleaming the information he needed. Everything mentioned in the article was already things he knew. Though there were two intriguing pieces of information. It seemed that the German authorities would be receiving help from international communities. He glanced up at the ceiling when he heard a loud thump and few curses coming from Eren's mouth. And it seemed that the German's had found a probable suspect in both cases. A smirk rose on his lips, he supposed he would thank his father later for that.

He could hear Eren's footsteps pounding down the stairs. He would have to yell at Eren for that, he didn't want him breaking down the house. Eren skidded on the floor as he rounded the corner of the railing and rushed into the kitchen. His eyes were wide and his hair was running wild as if he decided against brushing it that day.

His backpack was in his hands and he was rummaging frantically through it.

"What are you looking for?" He didn't need to ask the question. He already knew the answer to it.

"My sketchpad. I can't find it!" Eren dumped his backpack on the floor, and opened the mouth of it wide, as if that would somehow help him locate his missing sketchpad. "I thought I left it on my nightstand last night, but it wasn't there when I woke up. I can't find it anywhere."

Levi glanced at the clock mounted next to the cupboard. Eren was running late for school. "You're late for school. How about I drive you there? You can look for your sketchpad harder in the car."

Eren nodded slowly, like the thought of going to school without his sketchpad was even an idea he wanted to hear right now. He slowly zipped up his backpack and headed off to the entryway to slip on his shoes.

Levi watched him walk away. He slowly folded up the newspaper, noting that he would probably burn it later. He stood up from the kitchen chair and grabbed his car keys from off the hook. He stared at Eren, the teen so caught up in finding his sketchpad that he barely paid any heed to his father at all.

They walked out to the car together, a newer model of the Ford rather than the old one. Eren slid into the passenger seat and alleviate into the drivers. Levi glanced at Eren who had already taken the chance to rummage through his backpack once more, before they had even pulled out of the driveway. Levi pushed the car keys into the engine and turned them, he could feel the engine roaring to life underneath his feet. He backed up out of the driveway and slowly merged into the lazy Friday traffic of the city.

Levi glanced over every so often at Eren as he leisurely drove through the city. "After school, we can buy you a new sketch pad if you don't find your old one." Eren grunted at that, still rummaging through his book bag, clinging to a shrinking bead of hope.

"Was there something important that you drew in there?" Eren stilled. He looked up at his father for the first time that morning. His lips were parted slightly, his voice was caught in his throat. It was like some part of him was subconsciously telling him to not tell his father anything. To keep that picture to himself.

"No." He lied.

Levi inclined his head at that and they both continued wordlessly onto school.

 

Levi had a cigarette between his lips. He deserved it really, he needed one after this morning. The smoke curled away from the tip and dissipated into the sky. Levi waved Eren off as he stood stock still next to Erwin.

"Those things can kill you." Erwin smiled at him, his eyes flickering from Levi to any of the straggling students who were still making their way through the school gates, even though school had started ten minutes ago.

"I know of other things that can kill me first," Levi responded as he took a long drag of the cigarette and pulled it from his lips. He pursed them together and watched as smoke rings floated away from his mouth. Eren had been fascinated with watching Levi blow them when he was younger.

"You usually never drive Eren to school. What happened?"

"He drew a picture of Carla." Erwin's face contorted in surprise.

"You don't think-"

Levi dragged deeply from the cigarette, "I don't know, but I definitely wasn't going to take any chances. I couldn't risk it, Erwin. Weather he truly knows about Carla or not, this isn't the time for any small mistakes to pop up."

Erwin looked carefully at Levi. "And what do you want me to do?"

Levi pulled the cigarette from his lips and dropped it to the ground, he brought the heel of his foot down on the cigarette, extinguishing it as he ground his heel in the ground. "Follow him. Watch him. Watch his friends. Make sure they know nothing."

 

Eren could feel the hairs on the back of his neck rising. He reached behind him and rubbed at the skin there, he couldn't shake this sudden feeling, a feeling that he was being watched.

Eren could feel himself starting to analyze the room, making maps in his head and making note of his many people there were currently in the room and their positions. If someone had asked him what he was doing, he wouldn't have been able to explain it to them. This was something his father had taught him a few years ago, a way to sense his surroundings without being inconspicuous.

It had been cold that day, he remembered. Cold enough so that it would distort his senses, put him off balance, along with the fact that his father had decided to wake him up when the sun had barely made it over the clouds. The sky still as dark as it had been when he had gone to sleep, but tinged with red and gold.

His father had blindfolded him and driven him far away from home, he struggled to listen with every other sense he had, but that had alluded him when he felt they had driven for what seemed like an eternity. He had been lead out of the car and walked a few meters away from the car, they stopped in what had felt like the middle of a clearing and then his father had walked away.

He stood there, listening to the chirping of birds and the rustling of leaves, to the sound of his own heart beat and his breathing. The pain had come as a shock, it had felt like he had been hit with a bat, a very slim bat. The pain stung, it lasted for a few moments, but it slowly went away. He waited, ready for the next bought of rain, ready for whatever was swinging at him. He heard something whistling through the air, coming at his elbow from behind him. He spun around, his hands held up to catch whatever it was that was swinging at him. He gasped when the pain exploded in his shoulder instead, then as quick as lightning his right knee. He fell to the ground and the pain exploded on his back.

“You’re not thinking,” he could hear his father’s voice, but couldn’t tell what direction it was coming from.

“I’m thinking,” he shot back, “why are we doing this anyway?” He could feel the blunt object connecting with his elbow, he grit his teeth in pain.

“Don’t ask me why we’re doing this, you need to learn these skills, just like you’re learning everything else.”

Eren breathed slowly, as the memory faded out of his mind. Right, everything was just a skill to be learned, like how he knew how to speak and write in multiple languages, or how to dive, how to shoot various guns, how he knew jujitsu or capoeira or even the basics of wushu. He felt like there was something in this classroom, something that was watching him.

 

Erwin was seated in his office chair. The monitor on his computer screen displayed the interior of Petra’s classroom. He watched, the corner’s of his eyes creasing with interest as Eren bowed his head. He wondered what that kid was doing, he knew Levi had trained him to some extent, but to what and how long. What was Levi planning to do with this kid exactly? He watched Eren through narrowed eyes as he looked up, his eyes traveling around the room, and then he stopped. His eyes falling onto where the secret camera was hidden, Erwin pushed his chair back a little, the intensity of the stare actually frightening him a little. Eren couldn’t have known the camera was there, it was too small, the naked human eye couldn’t even see it. He tapped his fingers against a few keys on the keyboard. The video feed cut out and the monitor switched back to his desktop. He could feel his heart beating fast in his chest, he placed his hand over his mouth and gripped his jaw. It seems like things we’re suddenly becoming much more interesting.

 

Eren pulled apart his bread, he chewed on a piece of it slowly and shook his head at Jean who was staring at him expectantly. “No, I can’t. I’ll get in trouble.”

Jean leaned back in his chair, his arms crossed in front of his chest, as he groaned loudly in the cafeteria. “Oh come on Ackerman. Going to one little party tonight won’t kill you.”

Eren shook his head again as he chewed on more of the bread.

Jean rolled his eyes, he turned his attention to Mikasa, “so, Mikasa are you coming to the party?”

Mikasa shrugged her shoulders, she cast a pointed look at Eren, who understood what she was saying. He knew that Mikasa would only go to the party if he and Armin were to go as well, in an effort to keep Jean from flirting with her, which he knew Jean was going to do all night and probably would end up covered in water and ice as a reward for his efforts.

Eren started in on the rest of his lunch that didn’t consist of carbohydrates. He really wanted to go to this party, he really did. But his father wouldn’t let him, no it wasn’t that exactly. It was more like going anywhere other than to his home or school was a constant annoyance. He remembered just a few years ago when he, Mikasa, and Armin had decided to go downtown, to catch a movie- Rien à déclarer. The film had been no more than two hours long, but when he had returned home his father had grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him into an extremely long hug that he thought would never end. He remembered grand-père, oncle Erwin, and tante Hanji had been there. He had been completely confused at the strange matter, after that event his father had never let him out of his sight. If he were to go to the store with Armin or Mikasa his phone had to be on at all times or his father would just drive all three of them to where they needed to be…and stayed stationed outside in the car.

It was weird, it was like his privacy was being invaded on and it bothered him a lot. Just thinking about it made him not quite angry, but something akin to it. If he thought about it, he never remembered when he had a moment to himself, he was always being cared for under the watchful eye of his father, oncle, tante, or grand-père. He was never alone by himself. Never.

“I’m going to that party.”

 

Levi wiped the sweat of his brow as he walked inside the house. A basket of laundry pressed against his hip. He was amazed at the amount of laundry a teen boy could amass in a simple week. He placed the laundry basket on top of the kitchen table and set about to folding all the clothes that were in it. With a basket full of jeans and t-shirts he went upstairs to Eren’s room, he placed the laundry basket on the floor and opened Eren’s dresser, putting all of the clothing away. He smiled to himself when he noticed tucked in the corner of the drawer was a small stuffed bear that Levi had gotten for Eren when he had turned 2. Levi could recall the large smile on Eren’s face when he had presented the stuffed animal to him. Levi reached out for the stuffed animal and held it close to him. As bad as a thought it was, keeping Eren was probably one of the greatest decisions he had ever made. He would never change any of the decisions he had made, not even kidnapping Eren in that split moment decision. Carla’s shocked expression flashed in his head, his mouth suddenly felt sour and he dropped the stuffed animal back into the drawer.

That drawing Eren had made was still on his mind. It was sixteen years ago, Eren was just a baby at the time. He couldn’t have remembered anything, he shouldn’t have been able to remember anything.

Levi left the room, his feet flew over the steps as he headed for his office. He produced a key out of his pocket and placed it in the lock, he turned the key and felt the lock click in place. He grabbed the knob and pushed open the door. His office was off limits to Eren, the door was always locked and he was the only one who had the key. He stepped into the room and shut the door behind him, reaching along the wall until he felt the switch, his finger slipped upwards, flooding the room in a soft, pale light.

There was a desk lined up on one wall, with a home PC on it, and an office chair before it. A plush leather chair was placed in the corner of the room with a bookshelf placed against the wall closest to it. Levi moved to the bookshelf, his fingers ghosted long the spines of the books, until he found the one he wanted. A single book by Kafka, he gripped the spine in his hand and pulled the novel away from the bookshelf, he flipped the novel open. The inside of the book was hollowed out, a single key lay inside the book; a leather cord was wrapped around the tip. He had seen this key several years ago, when the thought came to him to raise Eren like his own, he knew that this key would have to disappear with Eren’s old identity. He couldn’t bring himself to pawn the key off, there was something about the key that felt…off. He doubted the key actually led anywhere so he did the next best thing that he could, he hid it. In a place that Eren would never expect and he would never find.

He whirled around, quickly shutting the book closed and placing it back on the bookshelf. He rushed towards the desk, reaching underneath it to a secret compartment he had, he withdrew a small handgun. It was enough to kill, but not quickly enough that he could gather the information from the dying lips of whomever he was about to shoot.

He paced quickly towards the front door, throwing it wide open, he stepped onto the porch and glanced across the yard. He hid the gun behind his back and waved to an elderly neighbor who was walking her dog. He waited outside for a few moments, his eyes flickered across the street and narrowed. He moved back into the house and locked the front door behind him.

Across the street, parked in front of a small home, was a black car. It was inconspicuous and appeared like it belonged in the neighborhood, until you searched for a license plate and there wasn’t one. The drive of the car peered out of the tinted window, at the house across from the street. The Ackerman’s, a son and a father lived there. He glanced at the files spread out on the passenger seat next to him. Two pictures were clipped to the top. He pulled away from the curb, the tires of the car barely making any sound on the street.

He had found him.

He had found Levi Ackerman.

 

To say that Eren was freaking out right now would be quite an understatement, he was far from freaking out; he was literally shaking as his thumb hovered over the GPS icon on his smart phone. A thousand excuses were running through his mind as he contemplated telling Jean that he changed his mind about going to this party. He was sick, his father suddenly told him he had to go home, he conveniently fell down a flight of steps and had to go to the hospital. He was chewing on his bottom lip when he pressed the screen, the blue light surrounding the GPS icon disappeared, signifying that it was off.

“Eren, the metro's here.” Armin was waving to him as the metro roared through the subway, coming to a stop at the tracks.

Eren stood up from his position on the bench and made his way towards were Armin, Mikasa, and Jean and Marco stood.

Marco gave him a quick smile. Eren liked Marco, everyone who met him did. Marco was the type of guy that was just super likeable, he went out of his way to ensure that you were okay and that you were comfortable around him as well. Eren was confused as to why such a horse faced bastard like Jean could have somehow found a friend like Marco. Their group stepped onto the train.

Jean had told them that the party was at some older kid’s house, his parents were rich or something and other and they would be out of the house for the next few days. Apparently Jean had met this kid nearly a week ago and they had become fast friends. What was his name again? Reiner? Eren shrugged his shoulders it was something like that. The trip to the inner heart of the city only took half an hour on the metro.

Eren gawked at the house as his rag tag group arrived in front of it. Music was pulsating from the house and pouring out across the immaculately trimmed lawn. Eren was pretty certain his jaw had hit the ground. Jean stepped up to the door and rang the doorbell, though Eren wasn’t too certain that anyone would be able to hear them over the loud music. The door slowly opened and a large, broad shouldered teen with short blond hair and gold eyes stood at the door. He seemed to exude an air of intimidation, Eren nearly mistook him for an adult until he started to speak to Jean.

“You made it. I thought you had ditched.”

Jean shook his head, laughing. “No, I just brought a few friends along with me. I hope that’s okay Reiner.”

Reiner shrugged, waving the group inside. As Eren stepped through the door, he could hear Armin and Mikasa gasping beside him. If he thought the outside of the house was immaculate, the inside quickly cast that thought from his head. A large grand staircase was set in the middle of the entrance. Teens were jam packed in every inch of this immaculate house, surrounded by paintings and sculptures that looked like they belonged in museums instead. “What do your parents do?” Eren heard himself say. Reiner laughed at that, his voice was still clear over the thumping base playing throughout the house.

“There’s food and beer in the kitchen or if you want wine it’s in there too. Just make yourselves comfortable.” Reiner began to chat with Jean and Marco. Eren could feel Mikasa tugging on the sleeve of his shirt as they and Armin began to walk away to find the kitchen.

The kitchen had to be the most amazing party of the house. Steel appliances and a large electric stove could be found in the kitchen, party platters and a whole bunch of other food covered every inch of available space on the counter tops.

“Sasha? Connie?” Armin was surprised as he was to find their two fellow schoolmates perched on the kitchen island. “What are you guys doing here?” Armin asked.

Sasha held up the plate of food in her hands like an offering, her cheeks were puffed out, like a squirrel who was storing food for the winter. Sasha’s family had been farmers up near the French Alps. She had moved to the city when she was young and had a penchant for eating every minute she could get even when it wasn’t lunch. She claimed that because her family had been hunter and farmers, that had led her to have a very large appetite. Eren had seen her eat lunch and it was a rather horrifying thing to watch.

“We heard there was a party going on tonight so we came here.” Connie provided a far better explanation than his girlfriend did.

It was then that a taller teen walked into the kitchen, he shot a smile at the group and headed towards the fridge pulling out a few bottles of beer. He held the bottles of beer up in front of him. “Anybody want one?”

Eren glanced nervously at Armin and Mikasa. At home his father allowed him a few sips of wine on the random occasion, but never really allowed him to drink anything larger than a sip. Connie walked forward, gratefully excepting a beer for him and Sasha. The teen raised his brow at Eren and his two friends. “We have wine if you don’t want beer.”

“Do you have white wine?” Mikasa asked.

The teen nodded as he moved towards the cupboards. “Oh, I’m Bertolt by the way. You guys are?”

Sasha took a swig of beer, washing down the mountain of food she had just managed to scarf down. “I’m Sasha.” She pointed to Connie. “This is my boyfriend-Connie,” then her hand motioned towards Eren’s direction, “and that’s Armin and Eren and Mikasa Ackerman.”

Bertolt’s brows rose as he placed down a couple of wine glasses and popped off the cork of a vintage white wine. “You guys are related?”

Eren shook his head. “We’re not, we just have the same last name is all.” Eren glared at Sasha for even bringing up the similar last name he and Mikasa shared. She gave him a tooth grin. Eren thanked Bertolt who handed him a glass of the white wine. He brought the glass up to his lips, he took a sip of the wine; it felt smooth as it slid down his throat, leaving a crisp aftertaste on his tongue. It felt like his whole body was vibrating with the thumping of the bass that was reverberating through the house. A smile was working at his lips, as an undeniable feeling was bubbling in his chest. He felt free, for the first time in his life, he finally felt like a songbird who had been released from its cage.

 

Levi’s mouth was set into a firm line. He pressed the phone to his ear and waited, as he waited for the other line to pick up. ” _Nous sommes désolés, mais le numéro que vous avez composé n'est pas joignable_.” Levi’s jaw ticked in annoyance. He dialed his father’s number.

His father picked up on the second ring. “ _Levi? Why are you calling so late? Did something happen?”_

 _“I can’t seem to contact Eren.”_ The words tasted bitter on his tongue.

 _“What?”_ He could hear his father rushing around his house. _“Did you check to see if his GPS is on? Did you try tracking him that way? Did you call him? Text him?”_ He was speaking rapidly now.

 _“I did all of that. The GPS on his phone is off and everything just keeps going to voicemail.”_ His phone vibrated in his hand, he pulled it away from his ear and glanced at the screen. It was Erwin. “ _Dad, hold on. Erwin’s calling me.”_ Levi switched the call. “ _Erwin, what’s up? Have you found him?”_

 _“No.”_ It felt like a bullet was tearing through Levi’s chest. _“But it does seem that Eren and a group of his friends were caught heading towards the metro. I’ll find out where they went from there. When I learn something more, I’ll give you a call.”_

Levi switched back the call, hearing his father on the other end. _“I’m coming over there. I’ll help you look for him.”_

 _“Merci, papa.”_ Levi hung up the phone, letting out an angry, frustrated sigh. He raked a hand through his hair.

He was angry. Eren always knew to leave the GPS on his phone on and that his phone had to be on at all times. It was extremely dangerous for Eren to be in any situation in which Levi couldn’t find him by his location or couldn’t call him. Levi’s fingers curled into a fist, it flew out and the side of his fist smacked hard against the wall. He knew from the start that raising Eren would be difficult. It was difficult, it had been difficult. Levi had knew that raising Eren would bring a boatload of troubles and worries, from the moment Eren could talk, he had worried that Eren would somehow still be connected to his past, that someone would notice how…different he was, that someone would notice that he was the kidnapped Yeager child. Levi could feel his heart beating fast in his chest as it suddenly became difficult for him to breathe. He curled his fingertips, so that he could feel them digging into the palm of his skin. The pain helped him ground himself, before he lost control. That was one thing he always had to be in control of, that an assassin had to be in control of-their emotions. One’s emotions was like a road map to their life, to their past, to everything that they were. That’s why assassins had to be in control of their own emotions; one smile, one little outburst could lead you to spouting something that you shouldn’t have said, that could lead your worst enemies to you very doorstep, that could lead the cops to catching you.

Levi took deep breathes until he could feel his heart slowing down from the rapid pace it had been making in his chest a short while ago. Eren was everything to him, he was his whole entire world and he didn’t need something like this to happen to him. Not again.

 

**Fourteen years ago**

 

            _“_ _Merci pour votre soutien_ _!”_ The girl managing the counter called after Levi as he walked out of the _boulangerie_. A paper bag with baguettes was in the crook of one arm and his son in the other. Eren was all smiles as chewed on half of le _quignon_. Eren roared at his father, causing both of them to laugh. Levi pressed his head against Eren’s who was happily munching on baguette and enjoying his tiger onesie.

            The day was bright and the sun was shining brightly in the sky. The summers in Nantes were amazing, just the right amount of heat, but not too much that it was overbearing. Levi could smell wildflowers on the breeze that seemed to course its way through the city. It had felt like a great day for Levi to take Eren and walk about the city.

            Levi turned the corner of the street.

            _“L’araignée gypsie. Monte à la gouttière._ _Tiens!”_ Levi’s voice rang out alongside Eren’s as they walked along the boulevard, lined with pastry shops and boutiques’. His eyes narrowed and flickered across the empty street. Something was wrong, his eyes glanced at a shop window; a hand darted out and flipped the sign in front of the shop window, signifying that it was closed. What shop closed at 3 p.m.? _“_ _Voilà la pluie, gypsie tombe par terre_ _.”_ There was no one on the street. It felt like his blood was charged, like every single fiber in his body was being stimulated with an electrical signal. _“_ _Mais le soleil, a chasse la pluie_ _-”_ He spotted them, a few meters away, it was a large group of barrel chested, tall hired thugs. There were at least six of them. They noticed him as well.

            _“Eren.”_ Eren looked up at him, his eyes wide and shining in the strong sunlight. _“Let’s play a little game. You’re going to close your eyes and count and you won’t stop until I say you do. Okay?”_ Eren nodded at that, he covered his eyes and began to count. Levi placed down the paper bag on the ground and placed his hand on the back of Eren’s head, pulling the hood of the onesie over until his eyes were shaded.

            He could hear Eren counting out loudly as all of his thoughts shifted to fighting. _“_ Une...deux…trois. _”_ He walked forward, the thugs walked towards him as well. There were six; they were all taller than him and bulkier as well, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t make them bleed.

            He noticed that they had knives in their hands, some had guns. That didn’t matter to him. One of them came running at him. He stood his ground, waiting…thug one lunged at him with the knife, slicing it through the air in a wide arc. He snorted at this, and dropped low, his left leg sweeping in a wide half circle. The legs of thug one swept out and he soon found himself on his back. _“_ Quatre…cinq…six. _”_ Eren counted aloud as Levi strolled over to thug one and brought his foot down into his face, he was satisfied when he heard bone crunching beneath his boot and heard a groan. The force of it wasn’t enough to knock him, he just needed to incapacitate them…or break a few of their limbs.

            _“_ Sept…huit...neuf…dix. _”_ The other thugs started to rush at him. He felt his blood boiling and his heart thumping with excitement. He cracked his knuckles as the rest of thugs seeing their incapacitated friend started to rush at him, one of them had their gun pointed at his chest. A smile appeared on his lips, not a smirk that he usually presented to others, but a full genuine smile.

            He felt alive. It was good to be back.

 

            Levi winced as he dragged the cotton ball against his cheek, he tossed the cotton ball onto the kitchen island and took a seat on the barstool.

            “Oh wow, you look like you got stuck in a blender.” Hanji stated as she walked into the room, grabbing an alcohol soaked cotton ball from off of the island and began to swab at one of his wounds.

            Erwin gratefully plopped down a glass of scotch in front of him, Levi grabbed the glass and took a swig of the drink. It slightly numbed the pain that was radiating throughout his body. “At least Eren and our dear Levi here are safe, though we can thank his short stature for that.” Levi glared at Erwin from across the island. A glare that told the blond man that he had the right sense of mind to chuck the glass at his head, but he wasn’t planning on breaking such an expensive piece of drink ware nor waste any of his expensive scotch on the man either.

            Levi had come away with the fight with some cuts and bruises, and maybe a broken rib or two. It was nothing major, he would live, but those thugs...well some of them at least were lucky that he had let them keep their lives. Eren was upstairs in his crib, fast asleep for an evening nap and not a single scratch on his body.

            “I talked to some of those hired thugs,” Levi grunted gratefully as Erwin refilled his glass, “it seems that they were contacted by a single man through an untraceable number. He didn’t tell them anything except to show up at that exact street today and wait for a man with a small toddler to come around. Once they saw him they were to attack the man and then t-”

            All three of them glanced up at the ceiling above them as the wood creaked slightly. Levi had hopped up from the barstool, it fell underneath him and came down onto the floor with a loud crash. Hanji and Erwin were behind him as he ran up the stairs, taking two at a time. The door to Eren’s room was in sight as he threw it open.

            Eren was wailing as the intruder-a man based on the facial structure under the black ski mask- held the toddler in one arm, his other was gripping the sill of the window. His eyes bugged out as they caught sight of Levi, Erwin, and Hanji bolting into the room.

            Levi nearly screamed as he saw the hand loosening its grip from the sill and disappearing. “Levi!” Hanji screamed as he raced towards the window and leaped out. He tucked his body in as he approached the ground quicker than he thought, he hit the ground hard, but rolled to absorb most of the impact. He could feel his shoulder pounding in pain, but that wasn’t his main focus now. He bolted onto his feet and chased after the intruder who was making a mad dash across the front lawn, however Levi was quicker and was soon on the heels of the man, he lurched forward, grabbing the man around the midsection of his stomach. They both came crashing onto the soft, spring grass. He flipped the man over, out of the corner of his eye he could see Hanji and Erwin racing towards him. Erwin got there first and scooped up Eren off of the grass who was wailing loudly now, he brushed grass and dirt off of him.

            Levi was livid, all he could see was red as his fist came crashing down into the man’s face. He pulled back and planted his fist into the man’s face over and over, until his knuckles were red with blood and the man’s face had become an undistinguishable bloody mass.

            “Levi, stop!” Hanji grabbed his arm, before he could plant another punch on the intruder’s face. “We need him alive.”

            Levi wrenched his arm from her grasp, getting off of the intruder he grabbed Eren from Erwin’s arms and walked away, stroking his head as he walked to the house, murmuring soft nothing’s into his hair.

**February 12 th **

            Eren glanced over towards Armin who was perched on the arm of a sofa across the room, animatedly chatting to a slightly older girl- Annie something or other- a girl Bertolt had introduced to them. She was apparently transferring to their school and would be starting after the break, the same with Reiner and Bertolt though Eren thought it was odd to transfer schools in the middle of the academic season. Eren thought Annie was…well she wasn’t weird, she was just mysterious or maybe that’s how he felt. Whereas Reiner and Bertolt were incredibly kind and extremely talkative towards him and his friends, Annie was the opposite. She talked when she had something to say and spoke in very few sentences as possible and the way she kept glancing over at him ever few seconds made him feel extremely uncomfortable. Like there was some secret buzzing around his head that everyone knew, but he didn’t. She was mysterious and there was something about her that made Eren extremely cautious of her.

            Eren pressed the lip of the Styrofoam cup in his hand full of fruit punch spiked with an even fruitier liquor. Eren drank it, he actually quite liked it; his cheeks were flushed pink as the smooth liquid poured into his mouth. He gasped into the cup as an arm wrapped around his neck. He held the cup away from him, coughing into his fist. He took deep breathes as his lungs and throat dispelled of any remaining liquid that was there.

            _“Whoa, you okay there?”_ Bertolt’s face came into view as concerned eyes raked over Eren’s and dipped lower than he would have liked. A shiver worked its way up from Eren’s spine. Bertolt pointed to the drink in Eren’s hand, _“how are you liking you’re drink so far?”_

            Eren smiled, _“it’s actually pretty good.”_ He was startled when the room suddenly went dark, he could feel Bertolt beside him, his arm slid from around his neck and rested on his shoulders, gripping his right one with his strong hand. The room was flooded with multicolored strobe lights as a slow techno song poured out from the speakers.

            _“I love this song.”_ Eren glanced at Bertolt’s face which was framed by the flashing colors and the darkness of the room.

            Bertolt motioned to an empty space in the middle of the living room with his head- that is if you could even call it that. _“Why don’t we dance to it then.”_ He grabbed the Styrofoam cup from Eren’s hand and placed it onto the end table next to them. He was dragging Eren to the middle of the room, before he even had a chance to decline.

            Eren was smiling as Bertolt started to dance, he was awkward with his tall height, but Eren was enjoying it. Eren could feel Bertolt’s eyes on him as he danced on the floor, he closed his eyes and could feel everything around him as he spun his feet. The heat of bodies around him, the pulsing of the music, the flashing of the strobe lights and the heat in his own body. A concentration of enlightenment and the alcohol. He spun on his feet as his body just moved to the music, it was like it was his lifeblood; pumping through his veins and moving his body on its own will. He opened his eyes, only to fall on Bertolt’s own, who had stopped dancing and was staring intently at Eren with green eyes, dark and hooded with some emotion that caused a stirring feeling in Eren’s gut. _“What?”_ Eren’s eyes widened as Bertolt pressed his lips against Eren’s own. Bertolt slid his hands up to Eren’s shoulder gripping him, Bertolt pulled away from the kiss, his eyes hooded as absently licked at his lips. _“Do you want me to stop?”_

            Eren surprised Bertolt by pressing his own lips against the taller boy’s. He could feel Bertolt groan at the kiss, opening his mouth slightly as he gripped Eren’s shoulders tighter. Eren could feel Bertolt’s tongue sliding into his mouth, sliding against his and brushing along the insides of his mouth. Eren grabbed at the collar of Bertolt’s shirt, pulling himself and the boy closer to him. He groaned as Bertolt caught his bottom lip between his teeth and pulled lightly, pressing a smirk against his lips as he went back in for another kiss. Eren groaned as Bertolt did wonders with his tongue. It was like he was the God of Kissing or sensual pleasure or something, it felt like all his thoughts in his brain were turning into goo and melting out from him.

            He gasped as he pulled away from Bertolt for air, there was a smile on his lips as he glanced at Bertolt and then his eyes fell on the space behind him and his features melted into a look of pure terror and shock.

            _“Papa?”_

 

            Levi glanced up at the large mansion as he pulled up in the large circular driveway. He glanced at the house, wondering what type of work this kid’s parents did to afford such a nice house. Levi got out of the car, shutting the car door behind him, he glanced at Erwin who stepped out of his own vehicle to give an appreciative whistle at the large mansion. _“Are you sure he’s in there?”_

            Erwin nodded as the lights in the house darkened and then suddenly strobe lights were flashing from the windows and music was breaking the silence of the night.

            Levi and Erwin moved towards the front door, letting themselves in. As Levi stepped through the door, a cluster of scents hit him. The smell of cheap teenage cologne and alcohol, a teen bumped into Erwin spilling whatever drink he hand in the red Styrofoam cup on the front of Erwin’s suit.

            Levi was pretty sure it was alcohol.

            The teen glanced up at Erwin, his eyes widening and his body stilling as he undoubtedly recognized the man whom he had spilled his drink on. _“_ _Proviseur_ _Erwin.”_ Erwin simply smiled at the teen, a dangerous smile, a smile of authority as he walked away.

            Levi pushed his way through the throng of sweaty teen’s bodies as he came to a large room. He spied Eren’s friend Armin siting on the arm of a couch and Eren’s other friend Mikasa in another corner of the room, looking positively bored as that Jean kid attempted to hit on her. Levi glanced around the room, searching for his son…and then he found him.

            He doesn’t know what look came across his face to warrant Erwin gripping his arm, preventing him from doing anything rash or for the kids next to him to move away from him as quickly as possible, but it must have been scary. It felt like there was a dark animal in the middle of his soul as he watched his son pressed against a taller kid’s body; their lips were locked together as they deeply kissed for what seemed to be like forever. Levi felt like time had slowed down as he watched his son kiss someone, watched his son being kissed by someone. It was like a dark feeling was eating at every bit of him, a feeling he didn’t like and quickly tampered down as he walked to the pair.

            He watched as Eren pulled away from the kid and smiled at him and that’s Eren glanced at him, his eyes widening in fear. _“Papa?”_ Levi glared at the tall kid that Eren had been kissing. Levi grabbed Eren’s arm. _“We’re going home.”_ He turned, only for Eren to wrench himself from his father’s grasp.

            _“No!”_ Eren shouted, his eyes wild and defiant.

            Levi’s brows furrowed in anger, _“no?”_ Eren turned pink, he backed away, the courage that he possessed mere moments ago having left him. _“Did you just say ‘no’?”_

            He watched as the apple in Eren’s throat bobbed as he swallowed nervously; taking a step back as he inched forward. Levi craned his neck as a wall of flesh stepped between him and Eren.

            Bertolt stared down at Levi. _“uh, sir. Whatever’s going on isn’t Eren’s fault-”_

            Levi cut him off with a glare, he looked at Eren. _“I can’t believe you. You disobeyed me! Do you know what could have happened to you? Yet I find you hear at this party, drinking alcohol and kissing some boy!”_ Levi was suddenly aware that the music had stopped playing at some point, everyone in the room was staring at him. Tears were leaking from Eren’s eyes. That shouldn’t have given him any satisfaction, but it did. _“I don’t care what you have to say. We’re going home and the minute we get there you’re grounded.”_

            Eren had tears rolling down from his eyes, they were plump and fat. Levi spun on his heels watching as Eren’s friends rushed towards him. He glanced at Mikasa who glared at him with a mixture of contempt and hatred.

 

            Levi sighed as he watched Eren run up to his room, hardly giving him a glance. He could hear the bedroom door slam shut as he pressed a hand to his forehead. He really needed a drink, a good, vintage wine or maybe a scotch. Raising a kid was hard, he thought to himself as he headed into the living room, he grabbed the remote from off of the sofa and turned on the T.V. a late night news segment popped up. He peered through hooded eyes as a clip of Grisha and a pregnant Carla played, they were smiling at one another as Grisha held an award in one hand and had his other on his wife’s stomach. The clip cut to another seen, this one several months later to what seemed like a home video of a very weary Carla holding up a pink, wailing baby. Grisha kissed her forehead as tears poured from his eyes as he made a move to kiss the forehead of his newly born son. Levi turned the T.V. off, he couldn’t bring himself to watch it.

 


	5. We Fear our Pasts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, a new chapter has arrived to perk up you guys since the end of school and summer is approaching fast. Again warnings are in place for this chapter, it features an LevixErwin scene close to the end and a ErenxBertolt scene close to the beginning, so if you're not interested in reading the sexual stuff or are uncomfortable with either pairing I suggest you skip those two scenes and I may add a chapter summary in the next chapter for anyone who felt like they missed anything important.  
> So please, enjoy this new chapter and I am so sorry for the frustration that many of you will by the end of it.

**February 13 th**

            It was the first day of _hiver_ , or winter break and Eren found himself grounded. He lay on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. He was positively bored witless, his phone had been taken from him and the only place he was allowed to go to on these two weeks of vacation was any room in the house- aside from his father’s bedroom and office- of course. He was banned from playing video games and banned from watching any television. If a student had to write a paper on what it was like to live like an inmate, Eren would encourage them to write about his life. He rolled onto his stomach, his feet swung in the air and came thumping down on his bedsheets, he hadn’t talked to his father since last night. They were both angry at each other, his father’s anger was understandable, but so was his. He had the inherent right to live like a teenager, not like a prisoner.

            And last night he was actually able to do so. The party was great, he could almost reimagine it. The flashing lights, the sweet taste of the alcohol on his tongue, the closeness of Bertolt’s body to his own…Bertolt. He had been on Eren’s mind ever since the night of the party. Eren closed his eyes, pressing his index and middle finger to his lips as he replayed the kiss with Bertolt over in his mind. The kiss had been slow and sweet, he traced his lips with his fingers. Bertolt’s lips were full and soft, the way they had melded against Eren’s own had been utterly perfect. Eren felt his breath hitch in his throat as he remembered the way Bertolt’s tongue had invaded his mouth, it had been utterly sinful. Eren slipped his index finger into his mouth, it was warm and moist as he lapped at his finger with his tongue, mirror what Bertolt had done to him. He moaned around his finger as he could feel himself getting harder by the second, he lifted his hips slightly, as he reached under himself. His hand gripped the straining bulge covered by his jeans. He moaned as his hips jerked away from him, his face fell forward onto the bed as he stuck his ass out into the air. His quickly unzipped his jeans, hissing as the article of clothing restricting his erection was removed. He gripped himself through his boxers, closing his eyes he imagined that it wasn’t his hand, but that it was Bertolt’s. Large and warm, the hand gripped his shaft loosely, he bit his lip, stifling a moan as he imagined Bertolt pressing his lips close to Eren’s ear. _You’re so hard_ , he would whisper as he pressed butterfly kisses against Eren’s neck. Eren gasped aloud as Bertolt tugged Eren’s length slowly, just enough that it was pleasurable, but not enough that he was getting of anytime soon. Eren bucked his hips against Bertolt’s hand, he could feel Bertolt smile against Eren’s skin. _So eager._ Eren’s legs were shaking as he attempted to hold himself up. He gaped, moaning so sweetly as Bertolt’s thumb caressed the tip of his penis, smearing the precum that was there around the pink tip. His touch was so soft, so sensual that Eren wanted to cry at the intensity of it. Eren’s legs were knocking against one another, he could feel the sweat building at his temples and dripping down into his face. He licked his lips as Bertolt’s toying pace picked up a little, his hand move up and down on his shaft, tugging at his skin as his other hand fondled Eren’s balls. Eren groaned, a litany of curses and moans flowing from his lips like a flood gate had been lifted. _Beg for it._ Eren could feel tears of joys streaming down his cheeks as his face turned red. He gasped and cried out as Bertolt’s grip became tighter and faster. “Bertolt,” he moaned out in the bedsheets. _Come for me._ Eren nearly screamed out of joy as he came, his legs were shaking terribly for supporting most of his body’s weight. He pulled his hand away from himself. Milky fluid was resting in his palm as he leaned across the bed to grab a tissue from the nightstand to clean himself up with.

            Eren sighed to himself as he wiped any cum that was clinging to his skin. He sighed as he tossed the tissue into the waste basket and stood stretching his limbs as his stomach growled. He was extremely hungry. He opened the door to his room and paused in the entryway. It felt like someone had been standing there just a few moments ago, he could hear his father in the kitchen, the sink was on and he could hear the clang of dishes. He turned around and looked back in his room, staring out the window. He shrugged…that was really weird.

 

            Levi was glad Eren was grounded. He was concerned that that must have been the crappiest thing a parent could ever say they were proud of, but he was. He was arm deep in soapy water, he pulled a dish from amongst it and began to scrub at it with a sponge. Eren didn’t understand what it was like to be a parent, you constantly had to worry about the safety of your child and whether or not the German authorities would come knocking on your door at any moment. Well the last part Eren didn’t have to worry about, but Levi did. The German authorities since last night had discovered that their number one suspect wasn’t even connected to the crime, much less had a rap sheet with crimes stronger than possession of illegal substances and battery that would place him at Germany’s most prolific crime scene. Levi scrubbed at the plate harder until he heard squeaking beneath his fingers, they had also discovered that there may have been multiple rats in charge of the investigation and working on it as well, so the authorities had elected Hannes to lead the investigation. Levi had felt as if his heart had leapt into his throat this morning when he heard the news, that name had been so familiar to him and then he remembered where he had heard it. He had heard it from Carla’s lips when she had been making her telephone call. If anyone was suited to lead the investigation Hannes would definitely be the man, considering from the report this morning that he had been a close friend to the Yeager family and also Eren’s godfather.

            Levi was startled when he stared down at his hand. The plate in his hand had cracked in two, he sighed as he walked over the garbage can and dropped the plate inside, he returned back to washing the dishes as his thoughts turned back to Eren. He was absolutely glad he had grounded Eren, he had had no right last night going to a party Levi didn’t know about, much less turning off his GPS and phone. Levi had gone for a jog this morning; that kid Eren had been kissing was on his mind- Bertolt- he thought his name was. His blood had been pumping when he thought about punching the kid, there was just something about him Levi didn’t like, and if Levi knew anything it was to go with his gut and to go with his instincts.  Levi wasn’t angry about the fact that his son had been kissing someone, when Levi was his age he had done quite a lot more than just give a few peckish kisses and make out with a couple of people in dark closets. Eren was free to kiss whomever he wanted…just not that guy.

            Levi sighed as he tossed the sponge into the sink. He looked up at the ceiling, speaking of Eren he had hardly seen him since this morning. Neither one of them was talking to the other. Levi swore, they were both to stubborn for one another. He made for the stairway and was at the top of the landing when he heard a sound. His brow crinkled in confusion as he raised a fist to knock on the bedroom door and that’s when he heard it.

            A moan. Loud and clear, it’s pitch and tone was something he swore came straight from a porno. Levi was debating in his head, weather to knock on the door and embarrass his son or to just wait it out and have a talk with Eren on the intricacies of sex. He could feel his body tense, like he was a taught string as that same moan came again, this time louder and with a name. _Bertolt_. Levi clenched his hands into fists, as the thought of Eren moaning such a name was as blasphemous as a sin. His son shouldn’t have been moaning that name, his brain seemed to becoming fuzzy as the moans increased along with the creaking of the bed. Unspeakable thoughts were forming in his mind, of what it would have felt like to hear Eren moaning another name instead of the one he was moaning now.

            Levi stepped away from the door as the creaking of the bed stilled. His stomach was twisting in knots he could feel his skin heating up as he stared at the closed door. What the hell? He could hear the bed creaking now as Eren was surely getting up; he rushed towards the steps and descended down them quickly as he made his way towards the kitchen returning to washing the dishes. He felt guilty for thinking those thoughts! Eren was his son! His own flesh and blood, a child no less. He shouldn’t- as a parent- even be having thoughts about doing such things to his own child, but the arousal broiling in his groin was telling him the opposite. He gripped the sponge in his hand tightly, the water and soap suds dripped out of the sponge and cascaded down his hand into the sink. He could feel his skin itching with the burning need to release his desire. He tossed the sponge in the skin and fished in his pocket for his phone, he quickly shot Erwin a quick text.

            _Are you home?_

            He waited a few seconds, his phone buzzed with a response.

            _Yes._

            That was the only invitation he needed.

 

            Eren walked down the steps, his hand pressed against the railing as he spun around the corner of it. He watched as his father speed walked out of the kitchen. He stopped; his body tense as his father brushed past him. Not a single word was exchanged by the two, Eren turned watching his father slip on a pair of shoes and then leaving briskly out the door. Eren raised a brow at such strange events, but a devious thought was suddenly starting to formulate in his mind. He rushed to the living room window and pulled aside the curtains, he watched as his father got into his car and drove away. He was alone! Eren ran up the steps, turning the corner, he quickly walked to his father’s bedroom. He stopped in front of the door, which was closed, but unlocked. His father trusted him to never enter his room unless he was there. He never understood such a reasoning behind it, maybe he father always had illicit material in his room that he never wanted a young child to find.  Eren reached out, his hand grasped the knob and he turned it. He cringed as he slowly pushed the door open, the room was minimalist, and it was the only word he could use to describe the room. The room was painted in a dark blue and the floor boards were a dark color themselves. There was a king sized bed pushed up to one wall and inside the room there was a nightstand with a lamp and a dresser…that was it. His father’s room had always been sparsely furnished, he never put in too much thought to it, because it was his father and his father had been living as a bachelor for so many years so he supposed that he was just rooted in his old lifestyle somewhat.

            Eren walked into the room. Where could his father have hidden it? His eyes zeroed in on the bed. He walked to the bed and lifted up the edge of the mattress, the corner of his phone peeked out from underneath it. He leaned down and grabbed it, plopping down on the bed he waited as he turned his phone on, the bright logo flashed on the screen for a few seconds, as he bit anxiously at his nails. He was expecting a few worrying messages from Mikasa and Armin over his overall disappearance after last night’s party, what he didn’t expect was the singular text from an unknown number.  He tapped on it to bring it up so he could read it. His eyes worked over each word, he could feel himself smiling with each passing letter.

            _Eren, I got your number from Mikasa, and I’m really sorry for what happened at the party last night. I had a great time and really wished it hadn’t ended the way it did. I really hoped we could have continued, you’re a great kisser._

_-Bertolt_

            Eren smiled as he got to the end of the text, his thumbs flew over the keys as he texted Bertolt back and shot off a few quick messages to Mikasa and Armin, just to let them know he was okay and hadn’t been killed. His heart beat a little faster when Bertolt texted him back, he was asking him out on a date after winter break of course, to a small café near the school. He smiled, his thumb hovering over the keyboard to text back a reply. He paused, his smile dying as his thoughts turned not from his potential date- well it wasn’t exactly a date- with Bertolt to thoughts of his father. He suddenly felt extremely conflicted, he wanted his own freedom, but he remembered the look of outrage on his father’s face when he had gone against his rules. He wondered why his father had acted the way he did some times, why his father had set forth these impossible rules. He wondered if it had something to do with his mother? Eren fell back onto the bed, the mattress embraced him like a warm hug, and he threw an arm over his forehead. He hadn’t thought about his mother in an extremely long time.

            He couldn’t say that he didn’t miss her- he did- but she had abandoned him as a baby at his father’s doorstep. He sometimes wondered why she had done what she did. Did she love him? Was she just overwhelmed by having him? He wondered if his parents had truly loved each other and maybe life would have been different if his mother had been around. As a child he sometimes imagined what life would have been like with her, they all would have lived in a house like this, she would nurse him back to health when he was sick and sing him lullabies in her serene native tongue. She would make him breakfast and kiss him on the forehead as he rushed him off to school. They would spend the weekends together as a family, going out to the movies or spending a day at the park. Unbidden he could feel tears welling up in the corner of his eyes, he slid his arm off his forehead and pressed his fingers to his eyes as the tears began to flow, burning his cheeks as the tears left trails on his skin. He shouldn’t be feeling this way he thoughts as he attempted to brush away his tears. He was sixteen, almost 17, and he spent almost a good portion of his life with just his father alone, but he felt like there was a black hole in his body. A void that existed within him that held all these burning questions about his mother and he didn’t know what to do with them. He took a breath, it was wavering and his whole body felt like he was going to cry again. He wiped his eyes with the palm of his hands. He wondered where his mother was?

 

            A sharp hissing sound filled the kitchen as the tea kettle on the stove finally started to boil. Armin rushed into the kitchen, his slippers that were much too large for his feet slid across the tiles of the floor with every step that he took.

            Armin headed towards the cupboard over the sink, opened it, and stood on his tiptoes to retrieve a mug from off the shelf. He settled back onto his feet as he placed the mug onto the counter, grabbing the tea bag he had left there earlier he placed it inside the mug and moved towards the stove. He turned the dial, till the stove was off and the hiss of the kettle started to die down. He grabbed the kettle and held it over the mug, and watched as the hot water sloshed down into it, before replacing the kettle back on the stove. He grabbed the mug, heading towards the living room were the soft murmur of the television played. He smiled softly to himself as he came upon his grandfather snoring heavily in his favorite recliner. He glanced at the television, there was a news special on. It had been playing all week at reoccurring hours of the day on almost all of the major news channels. Armin placed the mug of tea down onto the small end table next to the recliner and made to grab for the blanket thrown over the back of the sofa. The soft, downy material was in his hands as he glanced up at the TV. it was a simple program that all the stations were airing, a biographic special on the Yeager family who had died a little over a decade ago. The screen was plastered with a still photograph of the mother. Armin paused at the image…her face seemed eerily familiar as he studied her features. He felt like he had seen that woman somewhere before, but didn’t exactly know where. He shook his head as he covered his sleeping grandfather with the blanket, grabbing the mug of tea, he walked back to the kitchen. The program behind him faded as a new picture was replaced on the screen, this time a picture of the young family. The camera focused intently on the face of the young baby.

 

            “It’s a surprise to see y-” Levi grabbed Erwin by the collar of his shirt, pressing his lips against the older man’s as Levi pushed both of them back into the apartment, he kicked the door closed. Levi could feel droplets of water hitting his cheek from Erwin’s hair, he smelled fresh and clean as if he had just stepped out of the shower recently. The towel around Erwin’s neck slid to the floor as Levi pushed him against the wall.

            Levi was relentless as he kissed Erwin’s lips, his teeth nipping against his bottom and his tongue leaving a scorching wet trail in Erwin’s mouth that left his body tingling with desire. “Fuck,” Erwin whispered under his breath as Levi pulled away from him, instantly dropping to his knees as he worked at pulling Erwin’s sweatpants down to his ankles. Levi smirked up at him when he noticed he wore nothing underneath.

            Erwin shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t like to waste time.” Levi smirked as he stuck out his tongue and pressed it to the side of Erwin’s cock, which rested quite heavily in the palms of both his hands. His eyes bore into Erwin’s as his wet tongue glided along the side. Erwin’s mouth hung open, as a groan built in his throat. His eyes were hooded as he peered down at Levi. Levi worked his tongue over Erwin’s cock, his hands slid to Erwin’s hips. His hands gripping him there tightly.

            Erwin cocked his brows, wondering what Levi was doing, only for his look of confusion to be met with one of Levi’s infamous smirks. Levi opened his mouth wide and took Erwin’s cock in his mouth, inch by inch of it was disappearing into his mouth as his tongue licked the underside of it and swirled around the tip. Erwin’s head fell back against the wall with a thump. He bit his lip, hard enough that it started to bleed a little. “Fuck.” He groaned aloud as Levi pleasured him with his mouth.

            Levi was relentless as he used his mouth to suck Erwin off, his nose brushed against the blonde curls just resting above Erwin’s member. A hand gripped his shoulder, Levi glanced up noticing that Erwin was staring down at him, and he noted the sweat beading on the side of his face. Levi pulled himself away from Erwin’s cock, the appendage falling out of his mouth with a wet smack. He swallowed his throat feeling raw from use. God, he hadn’t done something like that in such a long time. Levi moaned out as suddenly found himself on his feet and pinned up against the wall. Erwin barely had his pants and boxers down to his knees before he heard the unmistakable crinkle of a condom wrapper. “Sorry that I’m not going slow, but-” Levi gasped, his fingers flattening against the wall as Erwin slowly entered him from behind.

            When it Erwin and Levi they never took their time. Their relationship wasn’t based around sensuality and the slow appeal that came to having sex. Their relationship both in bed and out of it was rough and fast paced. There was no niceties, foreplay was hardly a word to them. Their relationship revolved around such fast paced, rough sex. It was what they needed, what worked best between them both. There was no talking, just the shedding of sweat and that distinct smell of sex lingering on their bodies and in the air.

            Levi was groaning loudly now as the distinct sound of flesh slapping against flesh filled his ears. Erwin’s lips pressed against the side of his neck as his large hand slid down to Levi’s hip, rubbing circles into the skin there with his thumb, then sliding close to Levi’s cock. Erwin’s hand wrapped around Levi’s cock and stroked fast and hard as his hips thrust forth at an unrelenting pace that would surely leave Levi sore tomorrow and waddling around for a few days. Levi threw his head back, a few strands of his hair stuck to his face as a guttural moan came from his throat. His hips shook as his orgasm burned through him, Erwin’s hand slowed down, stroking slowly as he milked the last few drops of semen from Levi’s cock. Levi groaned as Erwin’s hips smacked against him for a few more moments, before stilling as Erwin had his own orgasm. Both men were sweaty and panting for breath as Erwin pulled away from Levi, heading towards the bedroom to clean himself off, only to return a few minutes later with a tissue for Levi to clean himself.

            Levi gratefully accepted it and wiped himself clean, before pulling up his pants. Erwin leaned against the wall, observing him, before he spoke. “The way you handled Eren’s punishment was completely unnecessary.”

            Levi glared at Erwin as he zippered up his pants, “geez, you really do know how to kill the mood.” He buttoned his pants and headed towards the apartment door, he opened it, only for Erwin’s hand to smack against the wooden door, shutting it completely as he trapped Levi between a wall of flesh and a wall of wood.

            “It’s not that hard to see why Eren did what he did Levi. You’re strict on him, and I don’t know whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing yet, but give him room to breathe…or else he might pull a stunt bigger than the one he pulled.” Erwin moved away from Levi, allowing the black haired man to open the door and enter the hallway of the apartment complex.

            As Levi sat in his car, the keys in the engine and the car thrumming with life underneath him, he rested his head against the seat. His thoughts turning to that of his son, maybe Erwin’s words did have some truth in them.

 

            Eren jumped to his feet as he heard the car pull into the driveway. Quickly shutting off his phone, faster than any teenager had ever done, he placed it back into the drawer of the nightstand and rushed out of the bedroom, making sure the room appeared as if no one had entered it before he left.

            His feet pounded down the steps as the front door opened and his father walked through the door. They both stilled, Eren’s hand resting on the railing of the step and Levi’s on the door. There was a spell of silence between them, only to be broken by Levi slowly shutting the door. Eren’s mouth flopped open and closed, there were words, unspoken ones formulating in his throat.

            “ _I-_ ” They both started, only for them to quickly silence again.

            Levi sighed, crossing his arms in front of his chest. The car keys dangled from his fingers. _“I-I’m sorry that I was harsh on you for going to a party. I get it you’re a teenager and that’s what teens do, but you have to understand how worried I was when you didn’t come home. When you didn’t call or text me.”_ Levi glanced down at his feet and then up at his son, his eyes normally an obscure color that complimented his stoic face were a soft gray the color of wool sweaters. There were creases under his eyes and at the corner of his mouth. _“It’s been just me and you for so long, that I didn’t know how to react last night. I thought something terrible had happened to you.”_

            Eren could barely breathe as his grip on the railing tightened.

            _“I love you so much that if something had happened to you last night, I wouldn’t have known what to do with myself. And maybe I’m being harsh or just an old senile man, but I don’t mean to be.”_ Levi dragged a hand through his hair. _“So, from now, you’re no longer grounded and you can have your phone back.”_

            A smile tugged at Eren’s lips as he dashed down the rest of the steps and towards his father. He threw his arms around his neck and pulled him in for a hug. “ _Merci, merci, merci!”_ He shouted with joy at his father.

            Levi smiled into the hug, _“and you also get to hang out with Armin and Mikasa- without my supervision of course, but you have to call me and text me every half an hour.”_ Eren squealed into the hug as he planted kisses against his father’s cheek. Levi could feel his face burning as the unmistakable feeling of sexual arousal burned in his bones. _“Okay, okay!”_ He shouted as he pushed a joyfully Eren away from him. _“How about we order pizza for dinner?”_ Eren whooped with joy as he prattled off the list of toppings he wanted on the pizza, walking with his father to the kitchen.

            Across the street in an unmarked car with tinted windows, the unmistakable sound of the shutter of a camera was heard.


	6. Spider's Web

**March 2nd**

  
Eren gasped; dropping to his knees and pressing his arms against his stomach as a ball of pain exploded in his abdomen.

  
_“There isn’t time to think about the pain. The longer it takes you to plan your next move, the quicker that’ll lead to your downfall.”_ Eren struggled to his feet, he had barely risen before Levi dropped low to the ground. His leg shot out and he swung it in an ark. Eren gasped as he went sailing in the air, he glimpsed the sky for a few moments before his back hit the ground. He coughed, rolling onto his side as his father casually strolled over towards him.

  
Levi extended a hand towards Eren as he stooped down onto the ground with one knee. Eren looked up at his father and grabbed his hand, in the blink of an eye it was Levi who found himself on the ground with Eren straddling his hips and his hands pressed against Levi’s shoulder’s, pinning his arms down to the ground, there was a cocky smirk on his lips. _“I got you.”_

  
Levi’s eyes seemed to twinkle when Eren said that, but his eyes widened with surprise as his father grabbed onto both of his arms his thumbs pressed firmly into the skin a few millimeters above his wrists. His arms suddenly felt numb and the pressure he was keeping on his father’s shoulders disappeared. His father rolled his hips, causing Eren to fall onto his back again, ending up in the position he was originally in at the beginning of this sparring match. Eren winced, his face turning bright red from physical exhaustion and his airway being cut off as Levi pressed an arm against his neck.

  
Eren struggled to breathe, his face turning redder by the second, his brows knit in confusion and worry as dark colored spots danced in the corner of his eyes. He struggled to breathe, his lips turning a dark shade of blue as he started to regain some feelings in his arms. His hands, grasped at his father’s arm; the nails digging into his flesh. He could feel his lungs and brain straining from the lack of oxygen, his mouth flopped open to suck at the air. His fingers dug into his father’s skin on his arm, blood welled to the surface of the flesh. Eren eyes danced in his head as he stared into his father’s eyes. They sent a chill down his spine. He wasn’t staring into the eyes of his father anymore; his eyes were dark and distant, a pair of black stones that were impenetrable. His father wasn’t staring at him anymore.

  
_“…P-Pa-pa.”_ Eren managed to stutter out, his eyes were burning and his vision was fading as his grip on his father’s arm weakened.

  
_“Levi?!”_ Eren could hear a shout from the distance and then the sound of shoes running across the grass. He gasped, rolling onto his side as he sucked down air, sweat dripped down his face as he raised a hand to his throat and cupped at the raw and tender flesh. His skin was hot and he could definitely tell without a mirror that his neck was bruised. He turned his head, watching as his tante rushed over to him. She grabbed his head in her hands and lifted up his chin, exposing his neck.  
_“Well there’s one nasty bruise, but I think you’ll live.”_ She grabbed his arm, forcing him to his feet. _“Come on.”_ She stayed at his side, blocking his view of anything on the other side of the yard, he strained his neck around her body to catch any glimpse that he could of his father, but her steel grip around his shoulders, kept him locked tight against her and him unable to see thing that wasn’t ahead of him.

  
She led him into the living room, depositing him onto the couch as she headed off to the kitchen to retrieve an ice cream sandwich. _“Hold this against your neck.”_ Eren did as she bid and found that the cold treat against his neck provided some relief. Hanji sighed as she crouched down, gingerly pressing a few fingers to the side of his neck, where the bruise seemed to be the darkest. She shook her head in disgust, turning her head she muttered out a slew of curses in French, _“fais chier! What was he thinking?”_ The front door opened; Hanji glanced up, her eyes narrowing as she glared at Levi. Eren turned his neck to glance at his father, though doing so caused him to wince.

  
Levi’s face seemed gaunt, an almost haunted tone to it. Eren stared at his father, who stared anywhere but at him and Hanji. Hanji stood up, her mouth set into a fierce disgusted scowl. _“Levi we need to talk.”_

  
Levi barely glanced in her direction, only giving her a curse nod as he walked down the hallway.

  
Hanji gave Eren a terse smile as she got up from her crouched position and followed his father down the hallway.

 

 

Levi sighed, as he placed his hands on the edge of the desk, he shut his eyes as he heard the door to the office open, the distinct rapping of Hanji’s sneakers against the wooden floor and then the shutting of the door.

  
_“What were you thinking?”_ Hanji hissed, warily glancing at the office door, before dropping her voice to barely more than a whisper. _“Do you realize you could have killed Eren!”_

  
Levi slowly opened his eyes as a tick settled into his jaw, his grip on the desk tightened as he glared at Hanji. _“Don’t tell me something I already know.”_ Levi scoffed as his chin fell against his chest, his sweat soaked hair hung down in his face. _“Dammit!”_ Hanji jumped with fright as Levi released his grip from the desk and punched the wall. The plaster underneath his knuckles cracked as a hole the size of a baseball appeared underneath his fist. Levi pulled his fist away, his knuckles were red and raw and blood oozed from them.

  
Hanji held up her hands, her palms open and her eyes shining with worry. She hesitantly took a step forward. _“Levi-”_ she stopped when he punched the wall again and again, until his fist was smeared in blood and the hole in the wall was bigger than the palm of his hand. Levi pulled his fist away from the wall, blood dripped from his fist and onto the floor. His brows were knitted together and entire face seemed distant and hurt all the same. A thick silence filled the room, leaving a rift between Levi and Hanji until he broke it. He whispered. Hanji leaned forward, struggling to catch what he said. _“He looks like them. He looks exactly like them.”_

  
The realization hit Hanji in the face, _“ohhh-Levi…”_ Hanji walked over to him, wrapping her arms around him and pressing his head against her chest. Levi shut his eyes, reveling in the close and familiar comfort of her body. Normally he would never like to be touched in such a manner, but they had a long history with one another and a bond that had been forged through jobs, allowing them a familiarity with one another that most assassins never had with anyone.

  
Levi sighed to himself as he leaned further into Hanji’s embrace. _“Every time I look at him all I can see is their faces. I didn’t mean to hurt him…when I was staring him, his eyes and his face, just looked so much like Grisha and Carla that when I just saw him. I-I suddenly felt like I was back in Germany again-”_ Levi stopped talking and stared at the door as the sound of footsteps and the creaking of floorboards alerted him that Eren was walking down the hall. The footsteps slowed down as they reached the office door, paused and then walked away into the kitchen. Levi pulled away from Hanji’s embrace, _“Let’s not talk about this anymore.”_ He raised his brow at her, _“why are you in Nantes? You never come down here.”_

  
Hanji pouted him, _“are you telling me I can’t take time out of my busy schedule to come visit ma neveu? There were some messages down the grapevine-”_

  
Levi’s interest perked up. _“What messages?”_

  
Hanji smiled at him, a smile that was sharp and held secrets that were complex and even he didn’t know all of them. _“Apparently one of our colleagues came to visit.”_  
Hanji kept a pretty meticulous record of all the active and retired assassins in the world. Not many knew she did, no one that was alive anyway. Hanji dubbed it as the black book, it contained everything that was needed to know about every assassin, their past and their present, personal information that no one was supposed to know, but somehow Hanji had the skill and knowledge to get. Levi sometimes wondered what Hanji had written about him in the black book. There were only a few assassins living in France and both he, Hanji, and Erwin knew who they were and their locations, so if some assassin had come to France on the pretense of a job...or something else, Hanji would know.

  
_“Who?”_ Hanji’s cheeks tinged red as she suddenly seemed interested in a spot on the wall.

  
_“You don’t know who it is do you?”_ That was an extremely troubling revelation, for Hanji not to know anything about the colleague that came into France placed them in a dangerous position. _“Please tell me that your little birdies are watching him?”_

  
Hanji’s cheeks couldn’t have turned any redder than they did. She glanced at the watch on her wrist, and began muttering about the late time and how she really needed to get back to Paris. “Hanji!” Hanji sighed at the call of her name.

  
_“My…birdies may have lost track of him a few days ago.”_

  
_“What!?”_ Now this situation had become a lot more troubling than it originally had seemed. _“Do you know where they were last located?”_

  
Hanji shrugged her shoulders, _“somewhere close.”_

  
Great. Somewhere close could mean anywhere. France was a big country after all.

 

  
**March 3rd**

  
Eren breathed in the cool springtime air as he set foot inside of the school hallways for the first time in two weeks.

  
_“Eren!”_ Eren turned around at the call of his name. His vision was obscured by a whirlwind of color as Mikasa tossed herself at him, he caught her in his arms. She wrapped her arms around his back, embracing him in a tight hug that swept him of his feet. Eren swore he could feel his spine beginning to snap under her embrace.  
Thankfully Armin wasn’t too far behind from Mikasa. _“Ahh, Mikasa.”_ Armin wrapped a hand around Mikasa’s arm. _“I think you’re hurting Eren.”_ Mikasa gasped as he glanced at Eren whose face was strained in pain. She released him from her embrace and he gasped as his feet touched the floor, his legs were wobbling and his back felt like it had been ran over with a steamroller. There were times were he forgot that Mikasa was insanely strong. Mikasa grabbed his face in her hands, turning his head to the sides in her hands. _“That shorty didn’t hurt you did he?”_

  
Eren brought his hand up to touch hers lightly. _“Mikasa, he’s my dad he wouldn’t hurt me-”_ Her eyes narrowed into barely more than slits when she spotted the red ring around his neck. Thankfully it had faded somewhat last night and had still remained red, but Eren knew that the mark around his neck was still there and unnaturally stood out from his skin. Mikasa was tight-lipped as she tugged on Eren’s chin so that he was staring into her eyes. He felt a little unnerved as she stared at the mark, wordlessly saying nothing even as her fingers left his chin and she continued to say nothing only stare at him.

  
Sensing the sudden uneasiness of the situation, Armin gripped Eren and Mikasa’s arm as the first bell rang. _“Come on we’re already late.”_

 

 

Eren found that over the two week break school had changed. There was something in the air that prompted such a thought from his mind as he sat in his seat. Ms. Petra was lecturing the class, the cool breeze of that spring day lazily floated in through the open windows. Though it was so early in the morning, the sound of soft snoring seemed to fill the small classroom in a symphony of sounds. As he transitioned through his classes, he still felt the same sentiment. He couldn’t exactly quantify what had changed, but there was this buzzing feeling that hung in the air.

  
Lunch didn’t exactly make the feeling going away. Eren chewed slowly on his food as Mikasa gazed at him out of the corner of her eyes. The lunch table was a lot livelier with the new addition of Annie, Bertolt and Reiner. Over Eren’s two week absence, he had learned, that the new trio had become fast friends with almost all of the friend’s Eren had in his social group. Eren smiled as he watched Annie and Armin engaging in a heated discussion on some current world event. He glanced down at the back of his hand as he felt the light brush of fingers against his skin. He flashed a quick smile at Bertolt who had stuck like glue to him for the better part of the day.  
_“Why don’t you two lovebirds get a room!”_ Jean shouted as he hooked an arm around Eren’s neck. Eren smiled, bringing his arm back to elbow Jean in his ribs.

  
_“Oh shut up.”_ Eren could feel his face heat up as he offered Bertolt a sly smile.

  
Just being with Bertolt took his mind of this feeling of uneasiness that was eating at him. It didn’t exactly get rid of the feeling entirely, but it took his mind off of it for the moment. Though there were concerns that seemed to claw at his brain, but he’d rather not dwell on them.

  
Bertolt must have sensed Eren’s lack of participation in the many social conversation that was going on around him. He frowned. _“Eren? Are you okay?”_  
Eren nodded, giving Bertolt a brief smile to comfort him. Everything was okay…or that’s what he choose to believe.

 

The sun was high in the sky and the few clouds that could be seen for miles were faint and lazily drifting across the robin blue blanket that made up the sky above France. It was on such a rare day in the week that Levi found himself strolling through the commercial du marché. It had been too long since he had been in one small space, surrounded by a large number of people who were shopping, running errands or doing many numerous things with their families. He spied a few tourists snapping pictures on cameras as they admired the antique charm that the Marché de Talensac seemed to possess. It was one of these reasons among millions that Levi just loved living here and thought of it years ago as the perfect place to raise Eren. The city was historic, scenic, its education system was great and the tourists- there were millions of tourists that visited the city every year and it provided the perfect opportunity for Levi to blend in and remain invisible.

  
Levi stopped at a vegetable stall after being beckoned to it by an old lady that was no doubt the owner of the stall. Levi poured over the various vegetables that were lined neatly in the stall. He leaned over a row of vibrant green watercress’s; the elderly woman began to chat him up. He was standing there listening to this little old lady happily chatting away with him over vegetables when his spine stiffened. He casually glanced around, still continuing to converse with the little old lady as he pointed at the cucumbers in the stall and began to ask her about those. Where? He was scanning the crowd as he talked to this little old lady. There were residents of the city streaming past him going about their daily business in the marché and there were the many tourists too; the French nationals and the overseas tourists who were rather easy to pick out from the crowd. As Levi picked up a tomato from the stall, he spotted him.

  
Roughly six meters away, positioned behind a tourist couple. Study your target. It was one of the fundamental rules to the art of assassination. You studied your target beforehand, it was better to know the height and weight of one’s target, what they ate for breakfast, their daily routines, when they had sex when they went to the bathroom, what their likes and dislikes were. In order to successfully kill someone you had to get into their mind, you had to touch and travel and peek at every place that existed; you had to think and breathe and understand your target better than you understood your own self at times. It was a rule that kept an assassin on top of their game, a rule that made them ready for their plans to change at any moment. It was a grim reminder to Levi who had suffered a few stabbings, gunshots and other horrendous injuries over the years due to the fact that he had underestimated a target. He studied the man, whom had been following him ever since he had walked all the way to the marché from his home. So he knew where he lived, that was a problem. The man was taller than Erwin, broad shouldered from the way the leather jacket he wore, his blond hair came to rest just at the tip of his shoulders and his bangs were parted in the middle, he had a thick dark mustache and beard, appearing as he hadn’t shaved in quite some time. Levi pointed out some vegetables to the old woman who packaged them into a brown paper bag and handed them over to him, he pulled out his wallet from his jeans pocket and handed the woman some cash, telling her to keep the change. He could sense that every moved he made was being scrutinized by the mysterious man. He walked away from the marché, swerving and picking his way through the crowd in front of him. The corners of his lips twitched when he could distinctly pick out the falling of footsteps behind him that mirrored the pace of his own.

  
He walked quickly, but not too quickly that it drew unwanted attention. He was rapidly approaching a crowded crosswalk, when he made a sharp right into a deserted, narrow alley that could barely hold two people if they were walking shoulder to shoulder. His brows furrowed in annoyance when he heard the same footsteps behind him. The guy wasn’t even trying to hide his presence, much less mask that he was obviously trailing Levi. Levi burst out from the other side of the alleyway and briskly walked down the street, he spotted a large group of tourists who were being led around by a tour guide. _“Excusez-moi! Excusez-moi!”_ Levi announced as he boldly cut through the large group, as soon as he was through he made another sharp turn, rounding the corner of the street. He could no longer hear that he was being followed. He slowed down his pace a little bit and walked back home.

  
He sighed as he walked through the front door, his feet were killing him from taking such extreme detours to shake off his pursuer. Right now, wine and a hot bath sounded like how he wanted to spend the rest of his afternoon before Eren got home from school. He walked into the kitchen and placed the groceries on top of the counter, he reached across the counter, his hand wrapping around the handle of the large kitchen knife he kept in the knife block. “I thought I got rid of you.” He said in English.

  
The man that was following him earlier stood still beneath the archway of the hallway and the kitchen. “I thought your handler taught you to never underestimate a target.”

  
Levi smirked. “He did, but he also taught me a lot of other things.” With a blinding speed, he slipped the knife from out of the block, whipped around and tossed it. The blond man ducked to the side, the knife embedded into the wall with a dull thunk where is shoulder had just been a few moments ago.

  
“Didn’t you ever learn how to play nice?”

  
Levi shrugged, “it’s not one of my best qualities. But this is.” Levi ducked low as he raced towards the man, he quickly dropped to the floor, his hands pressed flat against the tile of the kitchen floor as his right foot lashed out, aimed at the man’s jaw. The man grabbed Levi’s leg before his foot could even strike his jaw. He hoisted Levi up from the floor and threw him into the wall. Levi gasped as his back hit the wall with a loud smack; falling to the tiled floor he shakily tried to focus as his vision swam, making him see double for nearly a minute. He shook his head, slowly staggering to his feet. He lifted his arm up as fist came into view. He blocked it, his hand wrapping around the arm and grunted as he heaved the man- who weighed more than he did- over his shoulder. He went crashing into the kitchen table. The table shattered along with the chairs. Levi groaned, “I got that as a present.”

  
The man grunted, pressing a hand to his sides, he smiled at Levi. His sunglasses were cracked the lenses and parts of the frame were twisted. He took them off with his other hand and glanced down at them. He smirked, crushing the remnants of the glasses in his fist. “Those were my favorite glasses.”

  
Levi walked over to the wall. “Now you know how I feel.” He pulled the knife out of the wall and tossed it into the air, catching the handle in the palm of his hand. The man got up and ran towards Levi. The knife sang out in sweet high tones as Levi slashed at the blonde man who ducked and dodged at every swing of the knife that came his way. He gripped Levi around by the waist and rammed him back into the wall repeatedly into the counter. Levi flipped around, the knife whistled in the air as it sank down towards the man’s face. It thudded into the thick wood of the cutting board that the man held up- having grabbed it from the counter; Levis arm shook as he pressed down onto the handle of the knife with both of his hand’s, wedging the blade of the knife further into the cutting board. Levi didn’t see the cutting board coming when the man with all of his strength pushed the cutting board upwards, swinging it so that it hit Levi in his face and clipped his bottom lip.

  
Levi staggered away, he could hear the cutting board and the knife being tossed somewhere to the side of the kitchen. He swiped his thumb across the bottom of his lip, he glanced at it; the bead of blood dripping from his thumb and onto the tiles of the floor.

  
Levi could hear the bone of his nose breaking with a sickening crunch as the man’s fist collided with his face. Pain exploded in his face, but he didn’t have time to focus on such a small thing nor the fact that his nose was steadily dripping blood down his face. An arm wrapped itself around Levi’s neck as the man drew him into a chokehold; Levi’s back pressed tightly against his chest, he leaned backwards, the grip that he had around Levi’s neck tightening.

  
Levi’s eyes were starting to water, he sunk his nails into the wall of flesh restricting his airway, and black spots were dancing in the corner of his eyes as he tried everything to pry that arm away from his neck. He didn’t know how long he could hold his breath, but he wasn’t planning to test that possibility today. Levi struggled in the man’s chokehold; black dots were dancing in his eyes as the man seemed to bend back further and further, bending his spine to almost contortionist proportions. Levi’s grip on his arm tightened as the edges of his vision began to get hazy. Levi seriously thought he was going to die, to die here, in the kitchen of his house on today of all days; fighting a man that he knew nothing about, whom had a vendetta against him that he held no answers to. Levi had come close to death and multiple occasions, he was never running away from it. It was a fact of life that everyone would die one day, no one was immortal, and no one could live forever. Death and Levi had become close friends when he decided to take a career path in assassination. He had been death’s pawn, an administrator for death itself, he had watched thousands of people die, and thousands of the energy of life that humanity possessed fading from pairs of eyes, but Levi decided that today was not the day that he and Death would sit down for a cup of tea. He decided that he wanted to live. A guttural shout rose from his throat, rose from the deepest part of him. He wanted to live, he wished to live; he would live.

 

Eren laughed. He held his hand in front of his face, his spoon resting between his thumb and index finger. _“You didn’t!”_ He managed to gasp out from between breathy laughs.

  
Bertolt smiled, _“oh, but I did.”_ His spoon rested against his lips as he stared at Eren from across the table. _“You know, you don’t really-”_ He shook his head, _“never mind.”_  
Eren raised a brow, he sunk his spoon back into his parfait. _“What?”_

  
_“You don’t look like your dad at all. I kind of noticed that at the party, but I didn’t want to say anything.”_

  
Eren paused, a little taken aback at the question. Though he too had often wondered about why he was so physically different in appearances from his father; even when he chose to vocally air such thoughts to his father, the answers that usually came after his inquiries were never up to his satisfactory. Constantly being told that his physical appearance was attributed to a foreign mother he had never met, much less seen a picture of or even heard her exotic name uttered. _“I…I don’t know.”_ He shrugged his shoulders _, “I was just told my entire life that I looked like my mom.”_

  
Bertolt paused, he twirled his spoon between his fingers. _“Haven’t you ever tried searching for her?”_ Eren cocked his head to the side, giving some thought to the idea. He had never really tried to search for his mother, to reach out towards her or any family that she may have had that he didn’t know about. Attempting to extract information out of his father regarding his mother had often left him drained, tired from the effort it took just to get a word or sentence mentioned about her or on some occasions nothing at all. He glanced down at his spoon, his thoughts broiling in his head. He glanced back up at Bertolt, his eyes narrowing slightly as he noticed Bertolt was staring over his shoulder. He turned his seat, to get a better look at whatever Bertolt was staring at. He glanced around the café, there was an elderly couple behind him enjoying the sandwiches the café had to offer. There were a trio of teen girls near the entrance, they were laughing over a phone that one of the girls had out. Eren turned back around in his seat, _“what are you staring at?”_

  
Bertolt glanced at Eren and glanced back up and over his shoulder, his gaze swung back to Eren. _“It’s nothing,”_ he said with a reassuring smile.

  
Eren paused, though Bertolt was giving him a reassuring smile, he didn’t necessarily feel all that reassured. Even throughout the rest of the time they spent in the café Eren noticed that Bertolt was distracted, the signs were small. A quick flicker of the eye, a subtle twitch of the finger, but he was clearly distracted and that disturbed Eren to some extent, but he thought better than to just ask him outright what was attracting his attention.

  
The two had just left the café. The evening sun was warm on the city, Eren and Bertolt walked side by side, their shoulders nearly rubbing against one another. Eren linked his fingers together with Bertolt, who still seemed to be distracted, but offered him a warm smile none less. They continued to walk in silence, Bertolt seemingly becoming distant by the second the further they walked.

  
_“Bertolt is something-”_ Eren yelped as Bertolt suddenly walked across the street, dragging Eren with him. Car horns blasted on either side of them, a man leaned out of his car window and yelled at them, hurling a series of choice expletives at them as Bertolt dragged him across the street. His long legs covering a wider distance and Eren with his own, much shorter legs attempting to keep up. _“Bertolt!”_ Eren yelled, as he weaved the two through traffic, only to make it to the sidewalk and weave the two again through crowds of people who were taking advantage of such a nice day to get errand done or to enjoy the nice day out with a stroll. They both weaved through the crowd in a dizzying blur, in a manner that Eren had learned from his father as a method to shake off pursuers, to disorient and confuse them. Eren thought of it as an odd moment to remember such a thing he had learned, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that that was what Bertolt was doing right now.

  
Eren turned his head, looking back to see if someone was pursuing them. He couldn’t see anyone, just families and pedestrians walking to and fro. He was surprised when Bertolt pulled them into an AMC theater, though it was a weekday and a school day at that, the movie theater was still packed. Eren glanced around the movie theater, all of its workers were preoccupied with the massive crowd wanting to see their respective movies. Bertolt stopped, his eyes scanning over the lobby of the theater before he moved again, dragging Eren with him. They moved their way past theater workers to the row of theaters located in the large building. Bertolt’s pace didn’t lessen as he dragged Eren towards one of the black doors leading to the interior of the theater, he pushed open the door, a blast of air-conditioned chill swirled around them, and goosebumps rose on Eren’s arms.

  
The two walked into the darkened room, the loud sound of a motorcycle engine and explosions filled the expanse of the room, the theater flashed with colors as the projector overhead projected the film onto the screen. The two turned, scooting past occupied seats in this crowded theater, until the two reached a pair of seats that were unoccupied, and they sat down.

  
Eren glanced at Bertolt, a look of pure confusion on his face. _“What are we doing here?”_ He whispered, earning him glances and angry whispers to be quiet.  
Bertolt finally looked at him after dragging him through traffic and crowds of people only to end up in a movie theater. He shrugged, _“I just didn’t want our date to end._ ” Bertolt pressed a kiss to Eren’s cheek. Eren smiled, part of him loved the small gesture and the utterly romantic sentiment, but the other part of him, the part of him that had been trained and gained knowledge from his father for years knew that there was an underlying reason to why Bertolt had dragged him all the way to the movie theater, a reason why they had ran through the streets of Nantes, nearly getting hit by cars and weaving through citizens in order to shake off a pursuer. Eren felt like he was caught in a web, a web in which he knew nothing about the design or the maker, he was blind and that was one position he didn’t want to be in.

 

_“What are you doing here?”_ Levi groaned in pain as he pressed his back against the wall, there was a bottle of whiskey on the floor next to him. He grasped it with his right hand, though doing so hurt, he was pretty certain that there were a few bones in it that were broken.

  
_“I lost Eren.”_ Levi glanced cautiously at Erwin, the bottle pressed to his lips; he took a swig.

  
_“How could you lose one teenage boy? They’re not that hard to find Erwin.”_ Erwin sat down next to Levi, the back of his suit jacket crinkled slightly. Levi offered him the bottle of whiskey which he gratefully accepted. He pressed his lips against the bottle, taking a long drink from it, before he resumed talking.

  
_“I think that friend of his noticed I was following them. As soon as they left the café, both of them managed to evade me.”_

  
_“What friend was it? Mikasa? Armin? Jean-”_

  
_“Bertolt.”_ Levi’s mouth soured at the name. _“Did you get everything I asked for?”_

  
Erwin nodded, he reached inside of his suit jacket and pulled out a flash drive, he handed it to Levi. _“Everything is on there. Everything you need to know, though-”_ Erwin paused.

  
_“Though what?”_

  
_“Aren’t you being a little too obsessive about this whole entire thing? I know all of my students Levi and so far Bertolt doesn’t seem to have a hidden agenda or anything, he’s just a really good student.”_

  
Levi glanced at Erwin, _“thanks for the lecture, but I’m not really in the mood for the rest of it.”_ He stood up, his bit down on his tongue to stifle the scream rising in his throat as he did so. Every part of him seemed be suffering from broken bones, bruised flesh or something else. He could feel the area around his left eye starting to swell, he should probably get an ice pack on that real quick. _“What are you going to do with him?”_

  
Erwin stood up as well, he straightened his suit jacket and ran a hand through his hair. Levi noticed that there were wrinkles around his eyes. The old man was getting older. _“Just leave that to me. We’re going to have a long talk. Just me and him.”_

 

It was late at night when Eren stepped through the front door. He glanced at his cellphone screen, it was close to ten o’clock. He turned, slowly shutting the door behind him so as not to make a sound.

  
_“You’re home.”_

  
Eren screamed as he jumped into the air a few inches. He pressed a shaking hand to his heart and turned around as light flooded the hallway. His father was standing behind him, a bottle of water was in his hand. Eren’s brows knitted together when he noticed the black eye on his father’s face. _“Papa, what happened to you?”_

  
Levi brought a hand up to gingerly touch the skin around his eye, _“I got into a fight with a mugger.”_

  
Eren stepped forward, his hands reaching out towards his father who brushed away his hand. _“I’m fine. I’ve already taken care of it.”_ Eren scowled at that, he glanced down at his father’s hand that was holding his, he noticed that the knuckles were pink, raw, and slightly bloody and that the way his father was carrying himself- the slow and shallow breaths and the slight twitch in his right eye- indicated that his father had been in more than a fight with a mugger. His own father was lying to him.


	7. Rewind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok please bear with me because this note is very long. First let me apologize to everyone reading this fic, I didn't realize it had been a little over a month since I last updated which to me felt like it was only a few days ago. But I'm updating today and this chapter is slightly different from all of the previous chapters for two reasons- it's slightly shorter than previous chapters and this chapter is a breather chapter. I thought I've been dragging you guys through too many emotionally tense chapters that have been leaving you guys on edge so this chapter allowed me to just plot out what direction I want to take this fic and generally what things I really want to cover for the next few chapters and just generally outlining other fics I really want to work on. So please just enjoy this chapter and I'll work really hard on bringing the next one to you guys and hopefully it won't hit another month before that next chapter comes out.

**March 3 rd**

            A scream rose from Levi’s throat; loud and guttural, deep from the chest. He sunk his teeth into the arm tightening around his neck. The man holding him, let go, a litany of curses blossoming from his mouth as blood soaked the sleeve of his shirt and jacket. Levi turned on his feet to face the man, he turned his head, spitting the blood out onto the kitchen floor. He had just turned his head, his eyes settling onto empty space when he felt the weight of a kick to his side. His eyes twitched as he went flying into the kitchen island, he could hear the unmistakable sound of his bones snapping as he crumpled to the floor.

            He glanced up, seeing the man aim another kick at his sides, he moved his arms, catching the man’s leg, before he even had the time to connect the kick to Levi’s body. Levi gripped his leg tightly, with all he strength he could muster he tossed the man into the wall. His back hit the wall with a thud, cracking the plaster. Levi swore under his breath, noting the rise cost of the damage he was making to the house fighting this man. He pressed a hand to his side, wincing as he did so. He needed to end this fight and he had to do so quickly.

            The man stood up slowly, a little disoriented from the impact of the throw and his subsequent crash into the wall. Levi moved quickly, his arms raised to protect his face and his body loose, his knees were bent as he drew his leg back and swung, pivoting his waist until with all his force, the toes of his shoes hit the man in his lower jaw. Levi watched as his head snapped backwards, his head hitting the wall as he crumpled to the kitchen floor in a heap. He was out cold. Levi let out a sigh of relief, every part of his body throbbing in pain as he knees buckled beneath him, he fell to the ground, the stress and toll this fight had on his body catching up with him. He glanced at the unconscious body of the man lying just a few centimeters away from him, he reached into his pocket and dialed the number of the one person he knew could help him out with this.

 

            Mike Zacharius. An ex-navy seal lieutenant, who had served in a litany of top secret missions in the Middle East.

            _“_ _Pourquoi moi_ _?”_ Levi pulled away the frozen ice cream sandwich away from his swollen eye to glance at the laptop screen, his eyes pivoted to Mike, who was strapped to a dining chair with leather belts he had around the house.

            The front door opened at Erwin burst through it. Levi turned in his seat as Erwin with his incredible height briskly walked into the kitchen, his eyes wild and hazed with confusion. Wondering why Levi had called in an emergency in the middle of a school day. Levi jerked his head towards Mike, Erwin’s brows raised in a wordless question as he turned his attention towards Mike strapped in the dining chair. Levi noted how Erwin’s brows furrowed and then rose again in surprise. “Mike!?” He exclaimed in English.

            The other man’s eyes widened in surprise as he looked up at Erwin’s face. Erwin walked towards him, he bent down and began to remove the belts that Levi had used to strap him to the chair, before he slowly peeled off the duct tape covering his mouth.

            Levi’s brows raised in surprise as he watched Mike punch Erwin in the jaw, Erwin stumbled backwards from the sudden, yet powerful blow. Erwin glanced at Mike, his lip was busted and slowly bleeding, he wiped the blood away with the back of his fist. “What the hell?” Erwin glanced at his bloody fist, his eyes darted towards Mike who was standing up from the chair, his legs shaky from having been restrained in the seat for so long.

            “I feel like I’m the one who should be asking you that question Erwin.” Mike’s mouth was set in a thin, grim line as he glared at him.

            Erwin nodded, “I’m sure you have a few questions that you want to ask me-”

            “I have more than _just a few_ questions Erwin!” Erwin glanced at Levi who had been observing this spat between the two with an interested air. He watched as Levi closed the laptop and slid off of the barstool chair as he sighed, “I guess I’ll make some coffee.”

            Levi’s coffee rested between his hands, though the coffee had been brewed a long time ago and the mug was still warm between his hands, the liquid itself had long gone cold. His leg was resting on his knee as he stared at Mike who took a sip of his own mug of coffee before placing it back onto the coffee table.

            “After I came back from my job and I didn’t hear from you, I knew something was up. I went to your office, but it was a mess, the whole place was trashed-” Levi shared a knowing glance with Erwin. “-so I went to see Pixis.”

            Every assassin had to start somewhere, like a baby animal that had to be taught how to survive in the wild, lest it be considered weak and hunted down by predators that could overtake it, assassins were a lot like those baby animals. They were fledgling little things when they started out in this business, animals that hadn’t learned how to use their fangs or whatever nature had given them to survive, and they had to learn skills from someone else- a mentor of sorts- that trained them, taught them all the skills they needed to know. Pixis had been Erwin’s mentor.

            “I asked him if he knew what happened at your office, where you had gone, if you had come to him.” Levi put his own mug to his lips and took a sip of the lukewarm coffee, he scowled at the taste, but he drank it anyway. “The old man wouldn’t tell me a thing, told me he hadn’t seen you and that your business wasn’t his, that you were a grown man who could ‘wipe his own ass by himself.’” Mike laughed at that, a deep hearty laugh that came from his chest, Erwin laughed with him. The laughter seemed to dispel some of the tension that existed between them at the moment. “After that I knew something else was going on, it wasn’t like you to just pack up and disappear into the night without at least talking to me Erwin.”

            Erwin stared at Mike, his eyes calm and still, reflecting nothing of the emotions toiling within him. “How did you find out I was here?” Levi could hear the unspoken question that laid underneath that one, one even he was dying to know. _What exactly do you know? And how much?_

            Mike’s eyes narrowed as he stared back at Erwin, a smile tugged on the corners of his lips as his gaze pivoted towards Levi and swung back to rest on Erwin. “You really expect me to tell you how I found you Erwin? I can’t show you all the cards in my hand, but I didn’t exactly find you, I just had a hunch you would and Hanji would be hear or be somewhere close by, especially if _he_ was here.” Mike’s gaze settled on Levi; Levi simply returned the gaze. “So, Levi, tell me what was going through your mind when you decided to kill the Yeager’s and kidnap their only son?”

            Levi stood up faster than it took Mike to even blink. The mug of lukewarm coffee was now on the floor; the porcelain mug smashed to pieces and scattered all over the hard wood floor and the coffee spreading out and soaking into the wood- which would be a pain in the ass to clean up later. Levi’s lips were twisted into a scowl full of rage and his eyes were as dark and cloudy as a storm over the sea. Waves crashing and falling as the sky above it, swirled into a dark gray mass. Erwin stood and held a hand out in front of Levi, stopping him in his tracks before he could do something rash. Erwin gave Mike a pointed stare. “Mike,” he warned him.

            Mike shrugged his shoulders as he offered both of them a condoling smile, “forgive my lack of manners Levi, I’m brash, it’s just in my nature.”

            Levi glanced down at the mess on the floor, it was such a pain, “you’re apology is duly noted,” he said as he sat back down into his seat, “but I’m not certain that I accept it. Now if you want to keep your kneecaps today, you better tell me everything you know about me and my son.”

            Mike smirked; he glanced at Erwin who slowly sank back down to his own seat. “He’s everything you described him as.” He turned his attention back to Levi. “Alright, I’ll tell you everything I know. You were sent on a job to kill Grisha; wife and baby weren’t supposed to be there, but for some reason they were. Somehow you ended up attracting the cops to your location, killed Carla Yeager and kidnapped their son. Am I wrong?”

            Levi glanced at Erwin. So it appeared that Mike only knew the surface to the story, facts that even the general public were able to glean off of multiple news sites. “Mike, I need to tell you what really happened.”

 

            Mike’s mouth was agape and his eyes were slightly wide as his gaze danced back and forth from Levi and Erwin. “Both of you are joking,” he let out with an exasperated sigh, “right?” Erwin shook his head. Mike directed his attention to Levi, “what were you thinking? Couldn’t you have just disposed of the kid?”

            Levi’s eye twitched as Erwin shot him a cold glare. “Sorry,” he muttered. “Do you have any leads as to who’s behind this?”

            “We do,” Erwin began, “after I sent Levi on that mission to Germany I decided to do some research, just something about the job seemed fishy to me. Turned out my informant was dead and whoever killed him, left me a message. After that I got attacked in my office, the punks that attacked me were searching for something.”

            “For what?”

            “I don’t know, and I don’t know who sent them or who killed my informant either.”

            Mike raked a hand though his hair, “just give me everything you got. I’ll do some digging for you.”

            Erwin and Levi looked at him in shock. “Are you crazy Mike? The reason I ran, that Levi and Hanji ran was to get away from whomever set this entire stunt up. I don’t know who this person is are anything about this group, but do you know what you’re asking for Mike?”

            Mike shrugged, “I know exactly what I’m planning to do Erwin, don’t think that I don’t know the dangers I’m putting myself into doing this for you.”

            “Why?”

            Mike smirked, “Erwin remember what I said to you back in Oman? I owe you, and now I’m paying back that debt.”

 

**March 5 th **

            Levi awoke with a start. The lingering fingers of sleep were still combing its fingers through his mind. Was it morning or night? He was uncertain of what time of day it was from the way the rain pounded against the house, filling it with the sounds of the turbulent spring storm.

            The random crackles of thunder and flashes of lightning briefly illuminated the interior of the dark bedroom, casting distorted shapes along the walls and ceiling. Levi stretched in his bed as the flashes of lightning were interspersed between the crackles of thunder. He turned his head to the side, glancing at the alarm clock with its bright neon green writing. He groaned, noticing that it was barely 4 in the morning, as he rubbed a hand along his mouth and jaw, he could the stubble growing there and knew he needed a good shave.

            He pushed himself out of the bed and walked to the bedroom door, he threw it open and walked through the dark hallway, lit briefly by the flashes of lightning until he found himself in the bathroom. He felt along the wall, until his fingers grazed the light switch which he flipped upwards. The bathroom was flooded in bright, harsh fluorescent light from the light strip above the bathroom mirror. He padded towards the bathroom sink, his feet touching the cold tiled floor. He placed his hands on the sink and lifted one to rub at his jaw as he looked at himself in the mirror. There was a fine, thin layer of stubble dotting his jaw and upper lip. He opened the bathroom cabinet; reaching inside he retrieved a bottle of shaving cream and a razor. He turned the hot water tap on as he set the can and razor aside on the counter. As he gazed at himself in the mirror, he wondered where all his youth had faded to in the past sixteen years, he cupped his hand underneath the running faucet as he leaned forwards, splashing his skin with the tepid water until droplets dripped from his face. Getting up this late was uncommon for him in his earlier years, in his youth he had trained himself to catch every bit of sleep when he could, to take.cat naps when the moment proved clear, to sleep and be alert at all times, and how to sleep for the least number of hours and still feel refreshed as if his body had gotten the full eight hours of sleep it required.

            He lifted his head up and grabbed the can of shaving cream. He popped off the cap and sprayed a copious amount of the opaque cream into his right palm, he popped the cap back into place and set the bottle back onto the counter. He pressed his hands together, spreading the cream between his palms and then pressed his hands against his jaw, spreading the cream along the lower half of his face and neck. His thoughts began to spin in his mind as he set about on the task of shaving himself. He had changed- he really couldn’t judge whether it was for the better or for the worse- ever since he had decided to become a father to Eren. He had slowly changed over the years, no not changed, he thought to himself as he ran his hands under the water, washing off the rest of the cream that coated them. He hadn’t truly changed, no he had just become more lackadaisical in the lifestyle he led. His skills weren’t as sharp as they used to be and his fight with Mike yesterday had shown him that.

            In his heydays Mike would never have been able to get that much info on him, much less discover where he lived or even go toe to toe with him in a fight, but Levi had become rusty by his own hand and he knew it. He had woken up late today, something he had found himself doing more and more frequently these past few days. While others might find 4 am an ungodly hours of the day to wake up, Levi found it as a necessary precaution to wake up earlier than that. He never knew who could be watching him outside or much less who was hovering over his bed. Levi picked up the razor and uncapped it; he held back his neck so it was exposed and began to shave. The razor smoothly glided over his skin and in minutes, he was washing the remnants of the cream off of his face and placing back the cream and razor into the cabinet. He reached inside the cabinet and retrieved a small plastic bottle of aftershave, something that Eren had gotten for him last Christmas, but quickly grew to hate whenever he actually used it; commenting that the scent smelled like “Santa rolling in a field of pine leaves.” Levi snorted at the memory as he splashed some aftershave on himself, his mouth turned downwards into a frown as the scent of the aftershave assaulted his nose. He really should throw the damn thing away, but he could never bring himself to do it. Throwing something away that his son had given him had just seemed criminal.

            He walked out of the bathroom, on his way he flipped the light switch, the light disappeared. He glanced at Eren’s bedroom, where he heard soft snores coming from. He glanced up at the wall on the clock and noticed it was nearing 5. School was undoubtedly cancelled in this horrendous weather. He walked towards Eren's bedroom, the door was slightly ajar and the sound of snoring came from within. He reached out towards the door and slowly pushed it open, the door creaked and groaned with the movement. He smiled when he noticed the rise and fall of the bedsheets, he pushed the door open further and stepped into the room, he walked towards the bed, sitting on the edge near Eren’s head, and he gazed down at his son. A smile rose to his lips as he brought a hand up to brush Eren’s hair out of his face as he slept. He hadn’t done something like this since Eren was much younger, he really missed this. He was startled out of his thoughts when he heard Eren mumbling in his sleep, Eren rolled onto his side and mumbled all the same.

            Levi got up from the bed and walked towards the bedroom door, casting one final look over his shoulder at his son, he closed the door. Making his way down stairs, he headed straight to the kitchen, where he made himself a cup of coffee. He blew on the steaming liquid as he made his way to the study, producing the study key from his pocket, he unlocked the door and quickly locked it again as soon as he had entered the room. He flipped the light switch and headed towards the desk where he placed his coffee mug down on it. He sat in the office chair and waited for the familiar welcome screen on the computer to appear. He reached for the mug of coffee and took a sip as he typed in the password to his computer. It was better to be careful after all. H glanced down at the flash drive he had left on the desk yesterday, when Erwin had come over after his fight with Mike. He wondered if he was being paranoid? If he for some reason didn’t want to put his suspicions to rest?

            The home screen loaded and he reached for the flash drive which he plugged into the hard drive. He opened the flash drive, in it was a single encrypted pdf file that Erwin had constructed for him. It wouldn’t take to long for him to decrypt. It was less than half an hour later when he finally had the file unencrypted. He opened the pdf and Bertolt’s picture was the first thing he saw on the screen, compiled in the file was everything Levi would ever want to know about the boy. He began to read the file, it seemed that both of Bertolt’s and his family had moved to the city a little over a year ago. His mother worked at a local hospital and his father at some law firm. Levi read the entire file and then reread everything again and again until there was nothing left for him to read. This kid was normal, just an average kid from an average family, he didn’t even have a single disciplinary infraction under his name. Levi suddenly felt guilty- which was an emotion he rarely ever felt- that he had just been more than a little paranoid, making up accusations and having baseless fear over someone else who was trying to carve out a niche in Eren’s life.

            He felt so incredibly stupid and utterly ridiculous that he was behaving like someone unbecoming of his age.

_“Papa?”_ Levi cast a glance at the door as a rapid knock came against the wood. _“Are you in there?”_ Levi got up from the seat and unlocked the door, opening it he was met with the sight of a bleary eyed, freshly awoken from sleep Eren. Eren blinked at his father, his fist still raised in mid-knock, parts of his hair were sticking up at interesting angles defying gravity and all of its intrinsic laws. He raised his brows, watching ever so slightly as Eren’s eyes furtively glanced past his shoulder into the study.

_“Do you need something?”_

            Eren shook his head once, _“no, I just saw the light on downstairs so I came down here.”_

            Levi smiled at Eren who still blinking at him sleepily but now attempted to rub the sleep out of his eyes. Levi reached up towards Eren’s head and ruffled his already messy hair. _“Come on. Why don’t I make you breakfast.”_

 

            The storm had cleared up by the afternoon. The leaves on the trees and the flowers were still dripping with water, the grass was wet and covered with droplets. There was the sound of songbirds singing outside the open window. _“The moment after it rains is always the best.”_ Kenny Ackerman remarked as he stepped through the backdoor and into the kitchen, in his hands were two gigantic ripe tomatoes. He walked towards the kitchen table and placed the tomatoes onto the tabletop before taking a seat across from his son. Kenny jerked his chin towards the fruit. _“Take those home with you.”_ Levi tilted his head in thanks. _“What brings you here? Is it something to do with Eren again?”_

            Levi raised his brows. _“What is it weird for a son to want to pay his own father a visit?”_

_“You? Yes it is.”_

            Levi smiled as he took a sip of the ice cold glass of juice his father had set before him a few minutes ago. The ice cubes in the glass tinkled against the glass as he set it back onto the table.

_“So Levi what’s been troubling you lately?”_

            Levi crossed his arms and stared down at the lacquered wood of the kitchen table, he hesitated, his mouth opening slightly only for him to shut it again. _“Dad…do you ever regret raising me the way you did?”_

            Kenny who was drinking his own glass of the refreshing cool liquid, sputtered into the drink. He pulled the glass away from his face and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. _“Why-why are you asking me this?”_ He asked as his eyebrows bunched together.

_“Dad just answer the question. Do you regret raising me the way you did?”_

            Kenny sighed as he placed the glass onto the table, the ice cubes rattled in the glass. _“Do I regret raising you the way I did? Of course I do, I regret it every day of my life, but there’s nothing I can do now to change it. When your mother died, I decided to raise you the best way I could, the way I thought would be the best to raise you, but it wasn’t. I forced you into a world that you had no say in. I forced you to become an assassin and gave you no choice and no way out. So do I regret the way I raise you? Yes I did, but at some point when you realize your mistakes you realize you can’t change them, but that you’re children eventually can.”_ Kenny squinted at Levi. _“Now why are you asking this? Do you want something from me?”_

_“No. I just wanted to know how you felt about raising me the way you did.”_

            Kenny picked up his glass, his eyes seemed to narrow more than they were already. _“You’re not thinking of raising Eren to become an assassin are you?”_

            Levi was speechless at the question. Truthfully he had never really thought about training Eren to become an assassin, he much less never really thought to tell his son what he used to do as a career. I mean sure he had taught Eren multiple languages and also taught him some of the knowledge he had gained over the years, but that was always in cast the inevitable happened to him and Eren. In case both of them one day had to just leave the city and run, run where? He didn’t know, but he always had the feeling that he and Eren would one day have to run away from France. _“No. Never. If he wants to become an assassin then I’ll let him choose, but this isn’t a career choice I want to see him make.”_ And he yearned Eren never would.  



	8. A Game of Cat and Mice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So new chapter yay! I hope you guys had a good time reading the last chapter, which was a relief chapter in comparison to the others, but all good things must come to an end and unfortunately that means drama must resume.

**March 30 th **

            _“Joyeux anniversaire!”_ Eren smiled at the sound of the words, his eyes were closed but he could sense his surrounds, he felt a cool breeze caress his arms and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. He felt the need to take off the blindfold covering his face, but he knew it was better to wait. _“Joyeux anniversaire! Joyeux anniversaire Eren! Joyeux anniversaire!”_ Eren blinked as his world suddenly became bright again, the blindfold covering his face had been pulled off. He glanced down at the kitchen table, a cake was place before him and the lights from the birthday candles flickered from the slightest breeze. There was a scattering of cheers and applause around him as he leaned forward and blew out the candles on the cake.

            He gasped when his aunt threw her arms around his neck, nearly knocking him off of his chair. _“You’re 17 now!”_ She sobbed into his neck, she pulled away so that her tears were running freely down her cheeks. _“I remember when you were just a little baby and you would poop all the time and Levi would call me just to come change you diapers or when you were sick and constantly threw up on him or even when you decided you wanted to make a cake for him, but it was just a pile of mu-”_

 _“Okay, Hanji that’s enough.”_ Erwin said as he pulled a tearful Hanji away from Eren’s neck. _“I think Eren would like to spend his birthday laughing not crying over childhood memories.”_

            Eren smiled as he felt his father press a kiss to his temple. _“Let the birthday boy enjoy is birthday Hanji. We don’t need you making this whole thing into a snot fest.”_ Eren smiled as he watched his aunt moving closer to his father, tears still dripping down her face and snot running from her nose.

            _“Levi!”_ She cried out as she started running towards him.

            Levi slowly started to step back away from her as she advanced towards him. _“Hanji, seriously stay away from me!”_ He warned as she held her arms open towards him.

            Eren laughed along with everyone else as he watched as his aunt began to chase his father around the house, who was desperately trying to escape from her and her _visage sale_.

            The day passed by in a colorful blur of party goers, cake, and laughter. Eren and his father had just finished saying goodbye to Mikasa and her parents along with Armin and his grandfather when he had dragged himself upstairs and collapsed onto his bed with a sugar induced headache pounding against his temple.

            He was just begging to doze off when he heard a sharp, dull noise. _Tink, tink, tink_. He forced himself to open his eyes and sat up in bed; his mind still under the control of Hypnos as his sons coaxed their fingers through the dreams that clung to his skin. _Tink, tink, tink_. His brows furrowed as he thought that he must be imaging the sound or that it was originating from somewhere else in the house. The house was incredibly old to his knowledge, all the houses in this area were, they were all built during King Louis XIV’s reign…or maybe it was King Louis XVI. He really didn’t know nor did he really care as he sought to collapse back onto his bed and let Hypnos take him into the comfort of his arms. His eyes briefly ghosted over his bedroom window as he sought to lie back down onto his bed, his eyes narrowed as a stone-not big enough to leave a crack on his window, but a good size to create that sound he had been hearing for the past few minutes-hit his window.

            Now more alert than he was just a few moments ago, Eren's brows knitted together in confusion at who could be attempting to disturb him at such a late hour. He pushed himself out of bed as he made his way over to the window, he unlatched it and pushed it open, pushing his out into the window he peeked into the darkness of the night and was surprised at who he found below his window.

           _"Bertolt!"_ He harshly whispered down towards the teen below, who dropped the stones that he held in his right fist and smiled shyly up at him. _"What are you doing here?"_

 _"I wanted to wish you happy birthday."_ The lanky teen replied.

            Eren's mouth twitched in infuriation. _"Well, I'm sorry to inform you, but my birthday ended a few hours ago and you weren't exactly here to celebrate it."_

             Eren was satisfied to see a flicker of hurt and embarrassment in Bertolt's eyes. Even from the second floor he could still see it, but he felt guilty all the same.

            _"I can explain,"_ Bertolt gazed up at Eren _,"but you have to let me inside."_

            Eren sighed as he glanced over his shoulder to look at his bedroom door. He was praying that his father was sleeping. Eren glanced back down at Bertolt, _“fine, but you’re going to have to use the back door.”_

            Eren pulled his head back in and shut the window. He tiptoed across his bedroom floor and slowly opened the door; every creak and groan that came from he hinges made his heart skip a beat, when there was just enough space between the door and the door frame he slipped his body through the space and waited in the hallway. He heard nothing. His eyes flickered to his father’s bedroom door. He padded across the cool wooden floors, making sure to dodge the creakiest and looser sections of the floor that he had uncovered living in this house for so long. His footsteps fell like whispers as he made his way to his father’s bedroom and apprehensively, but slowly pushed open the door.

            He poked his head inside the dark room; the rhythmic rise and fall of the bed sheet was all he needed to confirm that his father was sleeping. He silently walked away from the door and made his way downstairs. He shivered when his bare feet came into contact with the cold tiled kitchen floor, making his way to the back door, he undid the locks and held the door open wide enough for Bertolt to come in. Bertolt nodded his head thankfully as he stepped into the kitchen. Eren shut the door behind him and crossed his arms over his chest as Bertolt faced him. _“Explain yourself,”_ he said.

            Bertolt rubbed his hands up his arms, he glanced upwards at the ceiling before his gaze fell on Eren’s face. _“Can we talk about this upstairs?”_

            Eren shook his head vehemently. _“Are you crazy? My father’s sleeping upstairs.”_

            Bertolt smiled at him, that usual smile that he always had but somehow seemed to reserve for Eren when they were alone. _“Alright then. I guess we can just talk here.”_

            Eren walked to the kitchen table and sat down, Bertolt did the same. _“I’m sorry I wasn’t here to celebrate your birthday with you, but I really couldn’t make it. I had an emergency out of town, a family issue that I had to take care of and I really wasn’t expecting to miss your birthday either.”_ Bertolt reached across the table to squeeze Eren’s hand in his, _“believe me when I say that.”_

            Eren sighed as he cocked his head to the side, _“the least you could have done was at least called me.”_

            Bertolt nodded, _“I should have and that makes me a shitty boyfriend.”_

            Eren sighed, a smiling rising to his lips, _“yea that does, but you’re still my shitty boyfriend.”_

            Bertolt smiled, _“you know there’s still enough time to give you your birthday gift.”_

            Eren raised a brow, _“oh? Where is it then?”_

 _“It’s right here.”_ Bertolt leaned across the table, his hand slid up Eren’s arm to cup his cheek. Eren closed his eyes as soft lips touched his, Bertolt opened his mouth, his teeth playfully nipped at Eren’s bottom lip, tugging it slightly. Eren smirked into the kiss, he let out a little whine as Bertolt pulled away, but Eren leaned over the table to chase after him. Bertolt let out a little laugh as the table wobbled as Eren attempted to lean across it just to kiss him. _“This isn’t working,”_ he said. Eren moved away from his seat, to walk around the table and stood in front of Bertolt. He gripped the chair Bertolt was sitting in and turned it to face towards him.

            _“Isn’t this a pleasant surprise?”_ Bertolt teased.

 _“Shut up,”_ Eren muttered as he sank down into Bertolt’s lap, he licked his kiss reddened lips before he descended upon Bertolt. Their lips and tongue’s dancing in the heat of their passion. Eren breathed into the kiss, his hips jutted forward as Berolt’s hands roamed over his body; roaming along his shoulder blades to the lower part of his back. Eren through his head backwards, his lungs burning for air. His eyes widened as Bertolt’s lips fell onto his neck, his lips and tongue, licking and sucking on a spot of Eren’s neck that made him weak in the knees, a thick moan came from deep in Eren’s throat, he quickly clapped a hand over his mouth as soon as the sound left his mouth. _“This is a bad idea,”_ he whispered to Bertolt who was planting butterfly kisses along his jawline.

            _“Then let’s not make it one.”_ Eren shivered at the hoarse, rugged tone of Bertolt’s voice, it was deeper than usual, and incredibly filthy and erotic all the same. He definitely wasn’t going to regret this at all.

 

 **March 31 st **    

            Bertolt glanced over at Eren, he shifted in the bed, causing the bed sheet to slip slightly off of his hip. His eyes flickered between the sleeping teen and the closed bedroom door. His hand reached down to grab the thin material of the bed sheet and slowly pulled it away from his naked body. He need to be slow, quiet and careful, he reminded himself as the bed dipped with the loss of his weight. He froze as soon as both of his feet were touching the wooden bedroom floor, Eren mumbled in his sleep-something about pancakes- as he rolled over, his left leg coming up to settle at the empty space of the bed where Bertolt should have been. Bertolt quickly searched through the pile of clothes on the floor, he could barely see his hand in front of his face as he attempted to feel for his boxers and pants, he finally found them and slid them on, he bent down to scoop up his shirt and slipped that over his head as well.

            As he slipped into the hallway, he noticed the thin rays of light casting long thin beams in the house, he guessed that dawn was only a couple of hours away. He had to move quickly. He made his way downstairs until he was standing in front of the home office, reaching into his pants pocket he pulled out his cellphone and removed the false back of his phone, to retrieve the pick and tension wrench he had hidden there, the tools were an antique part of his profession, but he found them to be much more reliable and trustworthy than any of the new lock picking tools out there, he found them to be too large to hide in small places and they produced too much noise in situations that could cause him to lose or limb or something much worse than that. He got down onto one knee and placed the pivot wrench into the lower part of the lock and then slid the pick into the lock slightly above the wrench. He maneuvered both utensils until he heard the soft click of the lock turning in the knob. He quickly retracted the wrench and the pick and placed them back into the false compartment of his phone, getting up off of his knee, he withdrew a pack of tissues he had in his jeans pocket, he plucked a single tissue from the pack and used it to turn the knob of the office door, he pushed the door open and stepped inside, slowly shutting the door behind him. He had work to do and he had to get it done quickly, he really didn’t wish to disappoint his superiors.

 

            Eren grunted as Mikasa’s kick connected with the thickly cushioned pad he had strapped to his arm. He raised the pad higher as Mikasa spun on her heel, her hips turned slightly outwards, using the momentum of her previous kick to plant an even more powerful one against the pad again. Mikasa brought her leg down as she peeled off the boxing gloves on her hands, sweat was dripping off her and staining the collar of her training uniform. She walked off of the mat, Eren following behind her as they headed to an empty area off of the mat where they had dumped their stuff earlier. Mikasa sat on the ground as she rifled through her backpack, retrieving a large bottle of water, quickly uncapping the bottle she squirted the water into her mouth and gulped, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand; bringing her knees closer to her chest she let her arms rest upon her knees. A loud shout rose up from the other side of the dojo, Mikasa's eyes narrowed as both she and Eren watched Annie sparring against multiple partners, many who were physically different from her and had years of training and honing their Judo skills.

            The other students in the dojo stopped mid-training to watch as Annie easily held her weight against the six older men. Annie's right foot slid across the mat in a semi circle as an opponent stepped behind her; lunging at her neck he gripped her up as he attempted to shove his knee into the back of her's and throw her off balance. Annie threw the lower half of her body upwards so that her legs wrapped around the man's neck, creating a deadly vice like grip. She tightened the muscles in her neck as she used the momentum of her weight to flip the man on his back, she quickly rolled away from him the moment her opponents back hit the mat with a rather loud thump. As she rolled, she spun onto her hands, her legs caught her second opponent in the ribs. She leaned forward on her finger tips as she back flipped onto her feet. Annie lowered her center of gravity as she bent her knees, her arms lowered slightly beneath her chest and her hands curled into fists, the left half of her body shifted forward in a semicircle, her left arm moving with the momentum as she turned her wrist. The punch connected with her third opponent’s nose, the force behind the attack so powerful that Eren could hear the shattering of bones so far away from he was sitting. Annie quickly dealt with the other three men, whipping them to the mat in a matter of a few seconds. Annie bowed to her opponents as they rolled on the mat, groaning in pain or holding a limb that she had broken.

            _“Wow,”_ Eren commented as Annie made her way off of the mat, he glanced at Mikasa who had been staring at the fight with an expressionless face and an unnerving look in her eyes. She stood up placing her water bottle back into her backpack and walked towards Annie.

            Their eyes connected as Mikasa came closer to Annie; Annie pulled her own water bottle from betwixt her lips and nodded at Mikasa and capped her water bottle, placing it on the bench beside her as she and Mikasa headed towards the mat. They stood a few inches apart from each other and bowed; the room feel silent as all the other students on the mad stopped whatever they were doing and scurried off of the mat in a panic and stood around the edge to observe the fight. Annie and Mikasa circled around each other, like two rabid dogs circling to other to see which one would strike first; Annie rushed forwards, her leg sweeping in a high kick towards Mikasa’s face, Mikasa ducked, gripping Annie’s leg in her hands and twisting it so that Annie’s body did the same and she fell to the mat. As Annie fell to the fat, her leg arched forward sweeping out Mikasa's legs from underneath her.

            Mikasa's eyes widened as she began to fall, she raised her arms above her and forced herself to back flip onto her hands and then land onto her feet again. Her knees were separated by a shoulder's with and her arms tucked tightly into her sides. She blocked the kick that Annie aimed at her head and jumped up into the air, her leg lashing outwards as her kick connected with Annie’s chest. Annie stumbled backwards, clutching a hand to her chest area, located a few centimeters away from her neck. Her eyes seemed to narrow as Mikasa spun on the mat, she dodged every kick that was coming her way; she spun her own kick was blocked by Mikasa’s leg.

            Eren’s eyes widened, never once leaving the both of them as they fought on the mat. It was both staggering and horrifying to watch the both of them on that mat, they both wore different belts to indicate their ranks- Mikasa with her black and Annie with her green- but Eren would say that both of them were evenly matched even though he found Annie’s fighting style both odd and unique as she worked to mix the judo techniques she had learned here at the dojo with whatever fighting style she knew previously.

            Eren was drawn out of his thoughts as the dojo suddenly fell silent; silent as the night during the wee hours of the morning. His mouth slowly opened in shock along with the others around him. Mikasa was laying on the mat, the collar of her judogi bunched up in Annie’s left fist as her other fist hovered mere inches away from Mikasa’s face. Annie released the bundle of fabrics from her hand, letting Mikasa’s head fall against the mat. Annie stared at Mikasa as she stood up, then turned and walked towards bench where she had left her stuff. Eren watched as Mikasa laid on the mat, her chest rising and falling as she attempted to catch her breath. This was the first fight she had ever lost.

 

            The sun was slowly dipping beneath the clouds as Eren walked Mikasa home from the dojo. The sky was a multifaceted array of colors; golds, erythraean, and pinks. Eren glanced every few seconds at Mikasa as they walked together. She was silent, and that was saying something about her in comparison to her usual demeanor. He opened his mouth to ask her if she was okay, only to be met with a short and terse sentence.

            _“I’m fine Eren…I just really don’t want to talk about it. Okay?”_ Mikasa tucked a fallen lock of her hair behind her ear as she continued to trudge forward, not truly seeing but aware and alert of her surroundings all the same.

            They continued like this for some time; walking and not talking, a silence between them that made Eren uncomfortable.

            _“So…what happened after I left?”_

            Eren cautiously glanced at Mikasa, not quite understanding what she meant. _“What are you talking about?”_

_“Bertolt- he came over to your house after we all left.”_

            Eren’s eyes widened in surprise and then quickly narrowed. _“How do you know Bertolt came over yesterday?”_

            Mikasa held up a single finger, _“well number one, you’ve been walking funny all day-”_

 _“I have not!”_ Eren protested.

            _“-so I can only guess that you and Bertolt finally did the do. Now tell me how was he? Because for you to not be able to walk right he must be good? Did your dad notice your little funny gait this morning?"_

Eren rolled his eyes at Mikasa before he began to speak, _"I'm totally not going tell weather Bertolt was good in bed or not and no thankful my dad was still asleep by the time I got up this morning."_

            Mikasa smiled as she and Eren turned the corner, nearly a block away from her home, her smile faded however as a sudden thought struck her. _"You know Annie was gone for a week and according to Jean so was Reiner. Both of them didn't come back into the city until yesterday."_

 _"Oh, Bertolt just came back yesterday too, he said something about having a family emergency."_ Mikasa's mouth widened into a thin line. _"What is it Mikasa?"_

_"Just...Reiner and Annie; they both left town too for family emergencies."_

Eren shrugged his shoulders as they came closer to Mikasa's home. _"Maybe it's just an unfortunate coincidence."_

They finally came to the Ackerman family home, Eren waved to Mikasa's mother who was watering the garden. Mikasa rested her hand on the gate, before looking Eren deeply in his eyes. _"Coincidences are one thing when they happen once or twice, but for it to happen thrice it loses it's charm, and then it no longer is a coincidence but a lie and a secret wrapped up together."_

            Eren mockingly placed his hand over his heart and bent down on one knee. _"Oh gracious wordsmith, thy beautifully eloquent words are silver spun but shine like the richest of golds."_ He laughed as Mikasa punched him in his arm. _"Oh shut up!"_ Mikasa shot at him.

            _"Je t'aime."_

 _“Et je t’aime…malheureusement.”_ Eren stuck his tongue out at Mikasa as she bid him goodbye. As he walked home he found that Mikasa’s words weighed on him uncomfortably, he shook his head dispersing her words from his mind. It was all just a coincidence that was all it was…a coincidence.

 

**May 8 th **

            The room was dark; the only source of light in the room coming from the screen of the computer. The light eerily contoured and highlighted Hanji’s face, exaggerating her cheekbones to make them appear more pronounced and sharper. Her fingers flew over the keys in a blurring motion as lines upon lines of code came and went on the screen. Her eyes darted away from the computer screen for a few brief seconds to locate her coffee mug in the darkened room. She blinked when she found it, reaching out with a caffeine fueled shaking hand and gripped her mug, she took a sip of the now cold liquid; she scowled at the acrid sugary taste of the coffee and considered momentarily of getting up to grab a few packets of sugar from the staff lounge to pour into her mug, though she did remember having already poured sugar into her coffee and the thirty empty medium sized packets of sugar in the trash bin under her desk could attest to that.

            Hanji blinked, pushing up her glasses to rub at her eyes before letting them slide back onto the bridge of her nose, she placed her mug back onto the desk. She leaned against her chair; feeling muscles stretch that she quite hadn’t used in a long time. She placed her fingers back over the keyboard, a hand reached out from the darkness and touched her on her shoulder. She jumped, her first instinct to reach for the pair of scissors on her desk and thrust them into the eye of whomever was behind her, but the person stepped backwards just as quickly as they had touched her. Hanji turned on the small desk lamp near the screen and the soft pool of light that it gave off was enough for her to make out the surroundings in her cubicle.

            She turned her chair around to face whomever it was. _“Moblit?”_

            His hands were held up in a defensive position. _“I’m sorry I wasn’t expecting anyone to be here. When I came here I saw that the light from your computer was still on so I came over to check it out, but you were still here-”_ he trailed off, his face contorting in confusion, _“what are you even doing here anyway?”_

            Hanji waved her hand at the computer, _“just finishing up the coding for the latest project, it’s nearly done. I just have to look it over-”_ Hanji lifted up her glasses and rubbed at her eyes with the palm of her hand.

            Moblit pulled Hanji’s chair away from the desk, _“Hanji, go home and get some sleep. I can get someone else to finish this up tomorrow. You didn’t really have to do all this you know, the project wasn’t due for another week.”_

            Hanji shrugged her shoulders. _“It wasn’t that big of deal,”_ she yawned. _“I’m nearly done, just let me type in the last few codes-”_

            _“No!”_ Moblit said firmly as he pulled Hanji’s chair with her in it away from her desk. _“Just let me-”_ Hanji protested only for Moblit to drag her chair out of her cubicle. _“Go home Hanji, take a shower, get something to eat, and go to sleep. I don’t want to see you back here until tomorrow.”_

            Hanji whined as Moblit dragged the chair to the elevator and pushed the down button. The elevators door slid open and Moblit turned the chair so that Hanji was facing the elevator.

            _“Moblit~”_ Hanji whined in a high pitched voice, tilting her head back to look at him.

            Moblit smiled down at Hanji, meeting her own whining with his own in retort, _“go get some sleep Hanji~”_

            Hanji huffed as she stood up the chair and walked into the elevator, the doors started to slide closed. Moblit waved to Hanji and disappeared as the doors came together and the elevator dinged.

 

            Hanji sighed as she slipped into her apartment, shutting the door behind her she kicked off her flats and tossed her keys into the small dish on the end table near the door. She sighed in exhaustion as she let the messenger bag slip from her shoulder and onto the floor, she rubbed at her shoulders, attempting to work out the sore spots in them. Maybe a nice bath with a glass of wine would do her some good.

            But she decided against that, instead heading to the couch. She turned on the TV and settled and seemed to melt into the couch as an old romantic movie came on, nearly half way through the movie, she found herself sipping on a red wine that she refused to open unless it was a super special occasion and her laptop resting on her lap.

            She waited as the familiar lock screen appeared, her fingers flew over the keyboard, typing in the longest alphanumeric code she had ever devised. The screen changed to a plain background of a generic waterfall scene, there was little to nothing there, just the same basic icons that appeared when she had first gotten this laptop and booted it up. Her laptop was encrypted and heavily so, everything important that she had on here was locked up with a password so strong that her laptop was harder to break into than Fort Knox.

            It took her awhile before she was able to bring up the list. The list was a huge compilation of information on every assassin in the world, both active and retired. The list contained the most intimate of information about these assassins, where they lived, their skills sets, their daily routines dotted down to the final second. It was dangerous for her to keep such a thing, dangerous for her to have even created it in the first place, much less update it as often as she did. She set about updating the Asiatic portion of the file. She was nearly through half of what she set herself about to do when the laptop of her screen went black. Her skin went cold and her blood froze as the white coding flashed onto the screen. This wasn’t the time to be scared or be hesitant about anything, she quickly moved into action. Her fingers working the keyboard in a flurrying pace; first she had to restart the coding for the laptop, she would undoubtedly lose some of her files in the process, but her laptop was synced to another back up laptop she had in case of an emergency, all of her files automatically saved to that other laptop on a recurring ten second cycle. So it was perfectly fine for her to lose any of the files that she had.

            She bit down on her lower lip as her fingers struck key after key. Her teeth sinking harder and harder into the soft skin as each second went by and it became much clearer to her that she wasn’t just dealing with a simple virus or a bug, but a hacker and a very good one at that. She took a deep breath as her eyes darted along each text of code that scrolled up on her screen or flashed and disappeared. For a few minutes she was chasing this hacker as they attempted to dig through her files, she threw up fire wall after fire wall and encrypted files faster than it took her to warm up a frozen meal. Her heart was beating fast in her chest when she barricaded her laptop with multiple high strength fire walls, which were extremely impenetrable. Her fingers stilled against the keyboard when a second turned to ten, then a minute and then half an hour. She was on her way to shutting down her laptop when the mile long codes appeared again.

            She could hear her own heartbeat in her ears now, and the rushing sound of her blood as her fingers raced against the keys to try and prevent this hacker from taking anything from her, nothing she seemed to be doing at this point was working as sweat pooled against her temples. _“non, non, non, non, non, non, NON!”_ She screamed as her screen pixelated and turned black only for a single medium sized text to appear in italics: zugzwang.

            The screen returned to its original screen and Hanji quickly went through every single folder she had, her heart dropping further and further in her chest until it fell to the floor as every single folder she opened was empty. She tossed her laptop onto the couch cushion beside her as she got up and raced to her bedroom.  She immediately dropped to her knees in front of her dresser, pulling the bottom drawer open she began to toss out every single pair of underwear she owned onto the bedroom carpet. She lifted the false panel in the drawer and pulled out her backup laptop, she quickly turned it on and prayed that every single file was on there.

            _“Non,”_ she whispered to herself in disbelief as her backup laptop mirrored the other; every single file that she had, files that meant life and death to her and thousands of other people to were gone. She had been hacked.

 

            Hanji threw the apartment door open as a series of rapid knocks landed on her door. Levi and Erwin had a single second to take in Hanji’s disheveled hair and worry lines marking her face before she began to speak. _“This has never happened to me before and I’m so sorry you guys. I’m such a complete dumbass!”_

            Erwin put his hands up, shaking his head. _“Hanji what’s going on here? You need to calm down and tell us what’s going on.”_

            Hanji took a deep breath as she explained in detail what had occurred nearly an hour ago to Erwin and Levi. Levi pressed a hand to his mouth as he paced in front of Hanji, his shoulders were tense and pressed together in anger. He looked quite livid and on the verge of strangling someone.

            _“Hanji what’s missing?”_ Even in such a stressful situation Erin was the calmest one out of them all.

            Hanji swallowed nervously as she squeezed her eyes shut, she hesitated to answer, _“…everything.”_

            _“Like what Hanji? Everything doesn’t specify what was exactly stolen here.”_ Levi shouted, his anger boiling over like a boiling pot full of too much liquid.

            _“Levi calm down.”_ Erwin warned.

            Levi turned his anger on Erwin. _“Calm down? How can anyone be calm when a hacker with ungodly skills hacks into another hacker’s computer and steal secrets and years of knowledge that are enough to not only endanger everyone in this room right now, but thousands of other people.”_

Levi personally took a step backwards as Erwin’s brows pushed together and his eyes narrowed, turning his normally icy blue eyes, making them just a shade lighter, it made Levi’s blood run cold. _“And you don’t think that I know this? You don’t think I understand the severity of the situation? Right now isn’t the time for any arguments.”_

            Levi’s mouth set into a tight grimace as he stubbornly nodded.

            Erwin turned his attention to Hanji, _“now was there anything of important value that was on your laptops?”_

            Hanji wrung her hands together, _“they took the list.”_

            Levi watched as Erwin's cool facade shattered, his shoulders dropped and there seemed to be a taught tension in his body. He brought a hand up to his face to rub his jaw. _"I'll call Mike, see what he can do with this."_

 _"I'm so sorry, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean for this to happen."_ Hanji whispered as her body vibrated with stress and frustration from the past hour.

            Levi sighed, raking a hand through his hair, he walked over to Hanji and pulled her into a hug. _"This isn't your fault, nobody knew this was going to happen. No one knew."_ He whispered as she broke down sobbing into his shoulder, he petted her hair. What were they going to do?

 

            Bertolt leaned back into his chair, cracking his fingers as his eyes raked over every single bit of information contained with these files. His cellphone rang, he picked it up, the number was blocked but he answered it anyway.

             "Did you get it?" The voice on the other end was smooth and had the faintest traces of an accent.

              "Yes sir, I'm forwarding the files to you as we speak." Bertolt coolly replied in English.

              In another country, somewhere far from France, the speaker on the other end of the conversation sat at a café. It was busy considering that it was the lunch rush, but he blended in perfectly with all the other patrons who were taking advantage of the slightly warmer than an average spring day weather and sitting outside in front of the café's storefront. His laptop chimed as the file was received, he tapped a few keys and a file complete with a picture of the man appeared on his screen. His eyes glanced over the name: Levi Ackerman. Hmmm, so that was his name.

            "Sir?" Bertolt asked on his own end. "What would you like us to do now?"

            "Stay there; watch them both and report back to me." He hung up the phone and reached for his cup of coffee, the aromatic smell of the beans was enough to remind him of home, but it wasn't just quite the same. He took a sip of the scalding liquid and smiled as his thoughts churned over to the day that he and Levi had unfortunately crossed paths, but soon they would meet again. The game had only just begun.


	9. Pieces on a Board

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so utterly sorry that I kept you guys on the edge of your toes the last time I updated and I haven't updated for an extremely long time (again), my muse just recently came back and I'm prepping for some major changes in my life (like it's happening in a few days time) but hopefully this new chapter can quell your guys thirst in the meantime.

** May 10th **

            Eren sighed as he currently busied himself in his latest endeavor: how many paper balls could he shoot in Jean’s shirt while the boy slept? So far Eren was up to ten and if he continued on this track he was bound to break his own personal record. Eren glanced at the clock above the door, he groaned loudly as he shot another wad of paper at Jean’s back. Yes, it went in! He inwardly cheered to himself as he grabbed another piece of paper from the stack next to him. The paper really was to be used for academic purposes, but figuring out how many balls of paper he could land in Jean’s shirt in a short amount of time was an academic purpose…he thought. 

            He had half an hour left in detention and really it wasn’t even his fault that he landed in here the first place. Their third class of the day had just ended and he and Jean had found themselves in the middle of an argument that lead to Eren calling Jean less than pleasant name’s one of which had been horse face, but face it he had made horse jokes at Jean since as long as the two knew each other, but Connie and Sasha’s rambunctious energy towards to the twos spat had led to Erwin appearing from nowhere during the thickest part of Eren and Jean’s argument and giving the two midday detentions. On their way to the library- which really was a death sentence rather than a detention- Erwin had given them a speech about how the sole mission of the entire student body was to promote a sense of harmony and unison and some other things too, but Eren had already zoned out by then. As he landed his thirteenth paper ball in Jean’s shirt, he thought about giving into the temptation of smacking his head against the wooden table as he noticed that there was a little over half an hour to go until he could be released from the librarians custody, who by her disapproving stare would probably have been equally eager to relinquish her hold over him as he was to escape from her. 

            Eren had managed to shoot twenty of the paper balls down Jean’s shirt when the bell signaling their escape to freedom rang. Jean’s body jerked and his hand’s flew out to latch onto the edge of the table before he fell backwards out of his chair. With bleary eyes he stared into the distance for a while until it registered to him that he was no longer bound to the confines of the library. He stood up and that’s when the balls of paper fell out from Jean’s shirt and came tumbling down onto the library floor. Jean whirled around and glared directly at the culprit who was responsible for this mess, Eren burst out into a fit of laughter, letting his head fall against the cool wood of the table which earned him the stern hushing of the librarian who looked quite ready to take the stack of books next to her and check them at the two teenagers heads.  Eren and Jean bolted out of the library and headed towards the cafeteria.

            They both had barely sat down when Eren could feel the sting of Mikasa’s punch in his arm. Jean laughed at that, but wasn’t laughing anymore when he his own punch from Mikasa. _“I can’t believe you two!”_ She scolded them like a mother would when her two children were caught doing something wrong, _“school’s barely over and you both already got in trouble.”_

            Eren bowed his head in mock repentance, _“I’ll try to behave, mother.”_ He was certain Mikasa would have planted another punch on him if it had not been for the clear voice that spoke up.

            _“Um, do you mind if I sit here?”_ The entire members of the table looked up to see a petite girl, she had a round face and a timid smile. Her bright blue eyes seemed to be sparkling as she brushed her bangs out of her eye. Jean and Connie were quick to scoot over, though Connie’s action drew some ire from Sasha who looked ready to stuff the mound of potatoes on her plate down his throat.

            The new girl smiled as he she sat down next to Jean, she seemed to pause a bit as she stared at Jean, pressing her hands together as if she was in prayer. _“ah, merci.”_ Eren thought the way she said it was odd, and he could detect the faintest hint of an accent on her tongue. 

            _“You don’t sound like you’re from France.”_ The girl’s eyes widened and she placed she placed a hand against her lips. _“Ah, really? I didn’t know I had one.”_ She smiled again.

            Eren suddenly felt uneasy, like something about this girl was artificial and plastic, he thought she was creepy. 

            Jean suddenly smitten with the new girl, clasped her hands in his. _“Don’t listen to him, you sound like you’ve been living here all your life.”_

            She seemed to smile even wider as she turned her attention back to Eren, _“non, really it’s fine. I’m not from here, I just transferred to this school from Estonia. My name is Krista Lenz.”_

            Eren opened his mouth about to say something when the cafeteria suddenly fell silent. He turned his head to watch as Erwin walked into the cafeteria, their eyes met and Eren looked away. This couldn’t be good. _“Messieurs Eren et Jean_.” Erwin’s voice carried across the expanse of the cafeteria. Erwin’s well-polished dress shoes, clacked against the linoleum floor as he advanced closer and closer towards the table where the two teens sat, a smile plastered on his lips, that didn’t quite reach his eyes and seemed to contain the very chill of winter itself. _“It seems you two made a mess in the library, to which I kindly volunteered you both to help Madam Lecour ensure that the library is clean after school ends.”_

            Jean was the first to speak up first, _“uh, well, sir that’s going to be a little difficult-”_

            If Erwin’s smile embodied the very chill of winter itself, it now changed to the bone chilling smile that could give someone hypothermia if they dared to even so much as glance at Erwin now. _“I already took the liberty of informing your parents that you would be staying after to school today."_ Erwin nodded his head as a captain would after giving his subordinates orders, he walked away leaving Jean and Eren to stew over the fact that both of them would now be spending hours after school cleaning the library.

Mikasa crossed her arms like a stern mother would, _"see both of your actions got you in trouble, now you have to pay for them."_

__ Jean stubbornly glared at Eren, _"ehh, Mikasa this wasn't any of my doing. This was all this guy's fault."_ Jean jerked his chin towards Eren.

Eren rolled his eyes, _"I take full responsibility of my actions horse face."_ Eren smirked at the nickname.

_ “Do you two often get into trouble like that?” _ Eren’s eyes settled on Krista.

Eren shook his head, _“not really,”_ he smirked as he nudged Jean with his elbow, _“I just tag along for old horse face’s adventures and unfortunately somehow find myself getting in trouble with him.”_

The bell rang at that very moment and Eren let his head fall back and groaned. The bell signaled to him, his least favorite class of the day- Chemistry. The students started to clean up after themselves and piled out of the cafeteria. Mikasa stood up and walked over to Eren and gripped his arm, _“come on we have to go to class.”_ Eren groaned again, staring up into Mikasa’s eyes. He knew she could drag him out of his chair and all the way to their class without so much as breaking a single sweat if she wanted to. _“Eren, its chemistry. You’re only in there for half an hour, you’re not going to die_. _”_

_ “Ah, did you say you were going to chemistry?” _ Eren and Mikasa collectively glanced at Krista who was shrugging a small messenger bag over her shoulder.

_ “Yes, why?” _ Mikasa replied.

Krista brought up a fist so that knuckle of her index finger was just lightly touching her bottom lip, _“I’m still not used to this school and I have that class right now.”_

Mikasa’s released her hold on Eren and crossed her arms in front of her chest as she cocked her head to the side, _“so you want us to take you there?”_

Krista shook her head, _“I mean you don’t really have to, you can just point me to the right direction-”_

_ “It’s fine,”  _ Mikasa said firmly _, “we’re going to the same place, so you can just walk with us.”_

Krista smiled as she gave Mikasa a small nod of her head as the bell rang again. Mikasa grabbed Eren by the collar of his shirt as she realized that they were late. _“Wait, Mikasa!”_ Eren managed to yell as she pulled him out of his chair with her brute strength, before taking off out of the cafeteria; Krista trailing behind them in an effort to keep up.  

Eren’s arms were burning and throbbing in pain as he left the library. Muscles in his arm and all over his body were groaning in pain and shuffling his feet against the tiled floors of the hallway was sapping up the little bit of energy he did have left. He was certain that he would end up collapsing onto the school floor from exhaustion. He groaned as the doors leading out of the school appeared as he turned the corner. His muscles felt heavy and threatened to dislocate his limbs from his body if he even took another step forward. That bastard Jean left him hanging, as soon as the librarian had left after the final bell of the day rang, he had sneaked up to Eren and had told him that he needed to leave- a date with an American girl who was only in the city for a few weeks- he had slapped Eren on the back, promised to repay him, and was gone quickly before Eren could even curse him out. So he had found himself alone in the library and spent nearly two hours cleaning it, from the cobwebs in the ceiling to the cracks and crevices in the corners until his limbs had nearly atrophied to the bone. Eren swore, he would get Mikasa to punch Jean tomorrow. Eren pushed his way through the front door of the school and his eyebrows raised as he spotted a lone figure sitting on the concrete steps leading to the school. _“Krista?”_ She turned around and was startled to see him there and quickly slipped the phone she had in her hand into the pocket on her skirt. She stood up and faced him; smoothing down her skirt with her hands. _“Ah, Eren what are you doing here?”_

He hooked his thumb over his shoulder and pointed at the school, _“I was cleaning up the library.”_

Her eyes flicked to his sides as if she was expecting someone to be with him, _“where’s Jean? Wasn’t he supposed to be cleaning up the library with you?”_

Eren sighed as he walked over to the steps and sank down onto the concrete, his limbs relaxing in relief. _“He was, but he left early for a date. And I was left to clean the library all by myself.”_ Krista smiled at him as she sat back down on the steps _, “that seems highly unfair.”_ Eren simply shrugged his shoulders _, “it is, but I’ll get him back tomorrow.”_ He watched as her eyes darted around the schoolyard, she craned her neck and looked to her right and left, before slipping her phone out of her pocket and tapped the screen a few times, before ultimately placing the phone screen down on her lap.

_ “Are you waiting for someone?” _ He asked, just as his father’s car pulled up in front of the school gates. Krista’s lips settled into a thin line as she glanced at the screen of her phone again.

_ “Ah, yes…” _ She glanced at her phone again, but nonchalantly waved a hand in front of her face, _“but please don’t worry about me. I’m fine, really, their supposed to come in a few minutes.”_

Eren stood up and cast an apprehensive glance at Krista who just smiled at him as she held her phone in her hands. Eren gave her a small nod as he walked towards the car, his father opened the driver’s side door and stepped out. He cocked his head to the side and stared at Eren, his reading glasses low on the bridge of his nose. _“Really?”_ Eren smiled sheepishly at his father; Levi’s gaze turned towards the school where Krista still sat on the steps, now tapping at her phone again. _“Does she need a ride home?”_

_ “She said someone was coming to pick her up.” _

Levi turned and Eren watched as he walked towards Krista, said something to her and then both of them were walking towards the car. 

They were gliding along the streets of Nantes less than a few minutes later. Eren’s head was pressed against the car window as he stared outside at the thinning throng of bodies going about the city for late night errands or other buisnesses that needed to be conducted.

_ "Where do you live?" _ Levi asked as he pulled up to a red light.

_ "On the corner of Laverne Rue, but you can just drop me off close to there."  _ Krista's hands were clasped together in her lap.

Levi shook his head, _"no I'm dropping you off at your house not a block away from it or across the street, but directly at your front door."_ Krista nodded at that and gave Levi the directions to her home. The car twisted and turned through streets that Eren had never seen before and made him beleive more than once that they had left the city from the quaint look of the neighborhoods they passed through. They finally arrived to Krista’s street and Levi pulled up to the curb. Krista got out of the car and profusely thanked Levi for the ride. _“It’s not a problem, I just don’t want you having to wait so late to get home.”_ Krista thanked him again and as the car pulled away from the curb, Eren glanced back out the window and watched as Krista stared at the retreating car for a few moments and walked down the street they had just came, she faded into the distance until she became nothing more than a small silhouette that disappeared into the silhouette of others.

** May 13th **

            Eren groaned as he pressed his forehead against the pages of his textbook, _“this is so boring!”_ He cried out as his hand reached out towards the plate of snacks his father had left for the group of studying teens before he had disappeared into his office. Mikasa, like a whip smacked the back of his hand. He lifted his head off of his textbook to pout at her and let his forehead fall back on his textbook. It was May, and with May came the years final exams, and these series of final exams for Eren and his classmates were considerably important, next year would be hectic for all of them as they would be taking their bacculerates which for them determined what schools they could get into and were specialized on what careers they eventually wanted to have.

            Eren turned his face to the side, so that his cheek was pressing against the textbook. A feeling washed over him as he watched Armin pointing at a passage in his textbook, Annie leaned closer to him as she nodded. Jean’s laughter boomed loudly as Marco, Reiner, and Bertolt joined in on his joke. Connie was tossing popcorn at Sasha’s open mouth and Mikasa was talking to Krista, a smile on both of their lips. Eren pressed his hand to his stomach as the feeling tigetened, he felt like he was staring at everyone through a cage. Everyone knew what they wanted to do, but he honestly was confused about what bacculerates he wanted to take, and if he couldn’t even make such a decision how was he supposed to know what he wanted to do with his life? He stood up and left the room, his footsteps padding on the stairs as he headed towards the bathroom, he shut the door behind him as he made his way to the sink and turned the cold water tap on full blast. Cupping his hands under the running water, he let his hands fill to the brim as he lowered his head and splashed the water against his face, he repeated his actions until his face and neck were dripping with water. He sighed as he shut the water off and gripped the edge of the sink, where others had a clear picture of their future all he had was one filled with static, showcasing the unknown that was set before him. Such a thought left him feeling breathless and caused his stomach to churn and twist, he suddenly felt it was hard to breathe and his fingers gripped the sink a little tighter as everything just seemed to be unstable beneath him, like the whole world was shaking while he stood stock still.

            _“Eren?”_ Eren glanced up at the door, moisture trickled down his neck, he wasn’t certain if it was sweat or a droplet of water. _“”Eren? Open the door.”_ Eren wiped a hand across his face as he reached towards the door and undid the lock, his father walked into the bathroom, his glasses low on the bridge of his nose and worry written all over his face. It only took one look over for his father to take note of his son’s clammy and pale appearance. He quickly shut the door behind him and took Eren’s face in his hands, he pulled Eren’s face close to his and pressed their forehead’s together, before shivering and pulling away. _“_ _ Tu es froid comme la glace _ _.” _ He moved towards the sink and opened the cabinet, retrieving a thermometer from within, he pried Eren’s jaw open and shoved the thermometer under his tongue and closed Eren’s mouth, he waited for the device to beep before pulling the thermometer out and stared at its screen. _“You don’t have a fever.”_ His father crossed his arms as his eyes narrowed, _“what’s going on?”_

            Eren swallowed nervously before sinking to the tiled floor, his back pressed against the wall and his father followed his suit. Eren pulled his knees up to his chest and let his chin rest on them. _“_ _ Baccalauréat _ _.” _

            Levi hummed in response, _“I see. And that’s what’s bothering you?”_ Eren shook his head. They sat there in silence for quite some time before Levi decided to press the issue further. _“Then what is?”_

            Eren sighed into his knees, his eyes breifly closing as he took in a deep breath. _"I don't know what I want to do with my life...and that makes me terrified."_

             Levi glanced at Eren, before slipping his glasses off of his face and folded them up, slipping them into the pocket lining his shirt. _"It's okay to not know ehat you want to do yet, you're a kid and I'm not expecting you, nor is anyone else expecting you to find out what it is you want to do for the rest of your life. When I was your age I didn't even know what I wanted for breakfast everyday, so I don't expect you to come to a clear and decisive decision, just do what you think is best for you."_

          Eren nodded at those words, taking a slight comfort from them. _“Papa, when you were my age did you know what you wanted as a career?”_

            If Eren had been staring at Levi, he’d have noticed the subtle tightening of his father’s shoulder or the slight tick in his jaw or noticed the hesitation that was present in his body language. _“No-not really. I bounced around on jobs a lot. But when you came into my life, I realized I needed something a little bit more stable.”_ Levi groaned as he stood up and glanced at Eren, a smirk on his lips. _“_ _ Tu es le père de vieillir _ _.” _ He slipped his arm around Eren’s neck and pulled his head close to his hips. _“Don’t worry about your life ahead of you, just focus on living your life now. Alright?”_ He could feel Eren nod against his hip. _“Good, just come back downstairs when your ready.”_

** May 15th **

            _“You don’t know what career you want to have?”_ MmePetra stared at Eren, a book resting in her hands as she tucked a curl of hair behind her ears. _“Why didn’t you come to me sooner?”_ She shook her head as the bell rung throughout the school, _“nevermind, just come with me. I’m certain I can help you with this.”_ Both of them made their way down to the library, which as soon as Eren stepped his foot inside of the large room, earned him the quizzical stare of the librarian. He guessed she was still upset about her library turning into a rubbish bin full of wadded up paper balls. Mme Petra led Eren towards one of the desktop computers and logged in and tapped the keyboard, until she brought up a site that appeared to have nothing but a quiz on it. Eren quizzically glanced at her.

            _“You want me to take a quiz?”_

__ She nodded her head, _“oui,”_ and pointed to the empty seat before the computer.  Eren again glanced at her and slowly slid into the seat before the computer. His hand rested on the mouse as he looked over the first question on the online quiz, it seemed pretty simple; just choose from the numerous options below that best answered the question that was centered on his personality. The quiz only took him a few minutes and Mme Petra looked over his results when he was done. She smiled at him, _“don’t worry about your future so much, okay? I’ll schedule a meeting with your father and we’ll go from there.”_

            Several hours later, Eren and his father found themselves sitting in chairs across from Mme Petra’s desk, who was now sporting a very deep shade of crimson on her cheeks. Eren wanted to gag, seeing as almost a large majority of people who crossed paths with his father or even so much as glanced at him, ended up with a crush on him or an attraction to him and Eren always stopped his thoughts further than that, because he really didn’t want to know what others thought of his father in the deeper recesses of their mind. _“So, Monsieur Ackerman, you’re son came to me earlier about not having a career path in mind and I believe that we found some suitable solutions for him.”_ Eren watched as his father leaned forward to the desk as Mme Petra slid some papers across the darkened wood, she coughed a little into her fist as her blush on her cheeks seemed to become brighter. Levi grasped the papers in his hands and looked them over as Mme Petra began to explain. _“Looking at Eren’s test scores and his average scores in his class combined with the quiz he took, I came up with a list of career choices that Eren might find suitable to his skills and potentials.”_ She reached into a folder she had on the desk and pulled out a thin single sheet of paper, she handed this one to Eren. _“I suggest that the two of you go home, look over that paper and just go over your decisions with one with another.”_

            Eren nodded and on the ride home, he carefully looked over the sheet; though some of the careers were intriguing, he still felt an overwhelming uncertainty over what he wanted to do with his life and he felt as if none of the careers on this list really called to him. In a short time they were home, right as just as the sun was slowly disappearing below the skyline and the stars in the sky were faintly seen though a red orange teal still painted the sky.

            Levi sighed as he pulled his leather jacket off of his body and tossed it into the living room, it landed on the back or the couch. Eren’s brows rose in a wordless question, he thought his father had seemed distant all night, like something was bothering him. _“Papa are you okay?”_

            Levi seemed to snap out of whatever thoughts had been wrestling with his mind as he looked back at Eren over his shoulder. _“What? Did you ask me something?”_ Eren opened his mouth, very briefly and then closed it, he shook his head. _“Ah then what do you say about having some really cheap Chinese for dinner?”_

            Eren shrugged his shoulders, _“yea, sure why not.”_ He watched as his father disappeared into the kitchen, he turned towards the steps as his eyes fell on the door to his father’s office; his eyes narrowed, his father had seemed to be spending an increasing amount of time in there. Eren brushed it off as his father’s workload increasing as they gradually approached to summer. But something about that office just seemed to pull at him, like there was something in there that he needed to see. His brain mulled over the many mysterious things that his father could be storing in his office to keep from his eyes, like antique weapons…or porn. He shook his head in disgust as he really didn’t want his brain to venture any further than it already did.

** May 20th **

            Eren’s head was bowed over the textbook he and Krista were sharing together, he had been a total idiot this morning and forgotten his chemistry textbook when he had rushed out of the house in order to make it to the metro on time after his alarm had failed to ring and his father wasn’t there to wake him up either, from the note he had quickly glanced at as he grabbed fruit from the kitchen, his father had gone grocery shopping. And in his rush he had forgot to retrieve his textbook from on top of his dresser and place it into his book bag. 

            Though Eren was seriously glad Krista had hers and that she was great at chemistry to boot. Their teacher, Monsieur Jinn glanced up at the door as a loud knock rattled the wood, he moved away from a student he was helping and walked towards the closed door. He opened it and had a brief discussion with whomever was on the otherside of the door and then stepped aside do that a young girl could step into the room. Her skin was light, well darker than the average French, but lighter in comparison to the average Black person. Her skin was the color of light caramel, with freckles dusting the bridge of her nose and her cheeks. She stood stock still in front of the room, her arms at her side and her back straight. Her eyes slowly swept across the room, golden eyes that were slightly intimidating and left a subconscious chill down the spine of every person her eyes seemed to pass over. Her eyes settled on Krista who immediately paled and let out a soft squeak as she hurriedly looked down at her book.

            _“Everyone this is Ymir and she’ll be joining our class.”_ Monsieur Jinn announced, he looked around the room for a partner she could work with, but with the latest addition to their class the he was going to have to add her to an already existing group. _“Ah, you can work with-”_

            _“I can work with Reiner and Bertolt; we’ve known each other a long time.”_ Ymir stared at the two, her voice monotonic in nature. 

            Eren’s eyes settled on the two teens, their faces hardly betrayed any emotion at being reunited with an old friend? Acquaintance? Or whoever she was to them. Eren was about to turn his attention away from them, when he noticed the subtle clenching of Reiner’s hands and the way he clenched his jaw. Bertolt’s shoulder subtly brushed against his and the blonde haired boy seemed to calm down some.

            Eren turned his head back to the textbook, but glanced up at Krista when he noticed her hands gripping the lab table; her knuckles were as white as freshly fallen snow. _“Krista are you okay?”_ He whispered. She seemed to glance up at him, her eyes glassy and foggy and gave him a feeble smile as she turned her attention back to the textbook in front of her. Eren couldn’t help but feel a chill running up his spine. He lifted his head and time seemed to slow as Ymir walked down the aisle in between the lab tables, her gaze focused intently on Krista, but her gaze switched to Eren and they stared at one another for a few moments. A smirk rose on her lips as she reached the table where Reiner and Bertolt sat and pulled out the extra chair from under the table and sat down. Eren’s arms were shaking and every hair on his skin was raised. There was something about Ymir that…unsettled him.

            “You’re wasting my time.” Ymir turned to leave only to be stopped by Reiner who slammed his hand, palm down on the bathroom wall a few inches from her face. Her golden eyes bore into his.

            “Why are you here Ymir?” Bertolt glanced at Reiner, who hesitated for a few seconds, but reluctantly removed his hand from the wall near her head and returned to his original position near the door. He reached into his pocket and turned the scrambler on. It was a unique piece of equipment and one they didn’t really use often, it scrambled the signals sent to main hub where all the video feed in the school could be viewed, so instead of seeing two guys and a girl walk into the female bathroom on the first floor during the middle of a class period. The cameras would show nothing but empty halls. Reiner nodded his head at Bertolt.

            Ymir crossed her arms over her chest and snorted.

            “Where you sent by _him_?”

            Ymir rolled her eyes, “oh please. Don’t worry I’m not here for Eren Yeager, I’m not here to mess up whatever assignment you two are currently working. I honestly couldn’t care less about Eren, weather he lives or dies or whatever you have planned for him really doesn’t matter to me.”

            “Cut the bullshit Ymir!” Reiner shouted, his voice echoing in the bathroom. “Why are you really here?”

            She sighed, letting her head fall forward so that her chin was touching her chest. “Don’t shout so loudly do you want us to be found out? And besides I’m here for her. So I suggest blondie that you get out of my way because you’re wasting both my precious time and yours.” She unfolded her arms and moved towards the door that Reiner was blocking; his stood his ground- a wall of flesh blocking her only way out.

            Reiner’s mouth affixed itself into a scowl. “We can’t let you leave, you’re a liability and a danger to our assignment.”

            Ymir sighed again, cocking her head to the side this time to get a good look at both Reiner and Bertolt. “You know I know you’re angry with me, but there’s only so many times I can apologize for killing your friend. It was business and I don’t know if you two know that, but in this business there’s neither friends, family, lovers, nor enemies. Everyone’s a target and everyone is capable of getting killed. Now get out of my way or I won’t make this easy on you.”

            Bertolt nervously glanced at Reiner, a thin bead of sweat dripping from his temple that went down his face and traced the curve of his jaw. In the blink of an eye, Reiner had his index finger through the hoop on his knife. He swallowed thickly, causing the slim knife pressed against his neck to nick the flesh and pull a thin line of blood to the surface. Ymir brought her face close to his. “Don’t get in my way and I won’t get in yours.” She pulled the knife away from his neck and slid it back into the holster she had strapped to her back. Reiner pressed a hand to the cut on his neck and stepped aside.

            Ymir smiled as she walked out of the bathroom. As the door swung shut, Bertolt and Reiner looked at one another, both visibly shaken by the events that had occurred today. “What do you want to do?” Bertolt asked.

 

            Reiner pulled his hand away and stared at his palm smeared with his blood, “…for now, we wait and watch.”


	10. Oxyuranus microlepidotus

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo! It's a new chapter guys! After 8 billion years this fic has finally updated and I'm sorry about that, the last chapter was sort of one I forced myself to write and by my standards it wasn't...great, it was terrible and it makes me happy that you guys enjoyed it, but after that chapter I lost my muse and my mojo to just sit down and write and having started college a few months ago my time and energy to write this fic was just sucked out of me completely. However these last few weeks I've seen a change and that change has brought you guys this chapter. There'll be more notes at this end of this in which I talk about the fate of Web of Lies and what I have in store in general for it.

**June 18 th **

            The heat was sweltering as Eren opened the window, praying that even a light breeze would flow through and cool down the house by a few degrees. He sighed as he sank back down onto his bed, the meteorologist had reported that this week was to be the hottest the city had seen in a long time with temperatures in the upper 30s. Eren was absolutely melting into a puddle within his room, all of the windows in his house were open, and he was still unbearably hot. The air was awfully dry today as he licked his even dryer lips and reached for the now lukewarm bottle of water on his nightstand, that a few moments ago had been freshly retrieved from the fridge and cold. He cracked open the lid of the bottle and drank from it, the water provided only a little relief to his heavily parched throat.

            He quickly downed the clear liquid from within the plastic bottle; he pulled the empty plastic away from his lips; a droplet of water that hadn’t made it into his mouth curved down his chin, he drug the back of his hand across his mouth, swiping the droplet of water away. He recapped the empty bottle and placed it back onto his nightstand as he threw himself back onto his bed, his hands tucked underneath his head as he stared up at the ceiling. The warmth of summer temperatures and the dryness of the accompanying heat made him feel incredibly drowsy as he stared up at the ceiling, his muscles were relaxed and his eyelids were heavy with drowsiness. His eyes fluttered closed and opened again as the staggering idleness of the day, dragged his mind further and further into that deep chaotic realm overseen by the guardian of dreams himself. His mouth set into a thin little line as he stared determinedly at the ceiling in an attempt to stave off the inevitable lullabies of sleep that were playing in his mind. His eyes fluttered closed again only to snap open, this cycle continued for a few moments until the king of sleep himself won; his eyes shutting closed as the warm afternoon sun filtered into his room, warming his skin.

            The dream started like any other normal dream he had. He was staring at the ceiling, well not quite at it. The wooden stars and the moon danced above him. The stars hand painted a bright shade of yellow and the crescent moon a softer shade of eggshell blue. They danced above him, chiming off a soft lullaby sounding tune that slightly comforted him in the rapidly darkening room. He rocked back and forth in his crib, his mouth wobbling as odd shapes danced in the shadows of the room; his small hands curled into fists as a sharp wail burst forth from his lips. His eyes squeezed shut as tears flooded from his eyes. The door to the room opened and light flooded the dark room. He could hear footsteps padding against the wood of the floor before finally coming to a stop in front of his crib.

            A woman leaned over the railing of the crib, her robe wrapped tightly around her as the braid casually tossed over her shoulder swayed a little; dark circles curved under her eyes and fatigue was written all over her face, but despite this a warm smile was still plastered on her lips. She reached down into the crib and rubbed his stomach, cooing soft words that he could barely hear. The hiccupping gasps and high pitched wail still burst forth from his mouth as this woman continued to rub his stomach. She continued to coo soft words as she reached into the crib and gripped him up, pressing his body to her chest as she rubbed small circles into his back and walked towards a rocking chair placed into the corner of the room, she sat down and rocked back and forth as a soft lullaby spilled from her mouth, _“Sleep, baby, sleep, thy father guards the sheep, thy mother shakes the little trees, there falls down one little dream. Sleep, baby, sleep!”_ The words were foreign to him, sung in a language that on the edge of his conscious sounded strange…but also eerily familiar. The rocking of the chair, the lullaby, and her hand softly rubbing smaller circles into his back was soothing; his whimpers and wails, the hiccupping sob that threatened to overtake him. His breathing slowed and his small fists gripped tightly against the soft material of this woman’s robe. She glanced down at him and he could almost feel her smile as she stood up from the rocking chair and walked back over to the crib, placing his sleeping form back onto the mattress within it. She leaned down and pressed a kiss to his forehead, brushing back a strand of her hair that had uncurled from her ponytail. _“Buenas noches, mi pequeño príncipe.”_

            In a flash, the darkness of the room disappeared. It was no longer night and shadows no longer danced in the corner of the room. The sun shined brightly in the room as he drummed his feet against the mattress beneath him. He turned his head as he slobbered over the hand he had in his mouth, the door to the room slammed open and quickly slammed shut. Footsteps hastened against the floorboard of the room as that same woman’s face hovered above his; panic and fear were dancing in her eyes as she produced a slim bronze key from her person and slipped it over his head. She reached into her pocket and drew out her cellphone as the doorknob rattled. Everything seemed to happen in a blur, as he could hear the splintering of the door and the loud thunderous sound of gunshots that echoed out and the thudding of a body hitting the floor. 

            He wailed as a voice echoed in the room, _“Carla? Carla are you there? Carla what’s happening we’ll be right there-”_ The voice suddenly went silent as he wailed even louder, footsteps approached his crib as a man leaned over to look at him. His features were distorted, blurry even like someone had a dirty camera lens over their camera. An indescribable feeling washed over him, an apprehensive feeling that left his entire being hollow. The face seemed to descend lower and the lower, the features on the face becoming even blurrier and blurrier until the face was just a few centimeters above his. The room seemed to disappear as this face began to morph and change, he suddenly became conscious that his back was pressed against the mattress of his bed.

            He desperately wanted to move, turn his head, even avert his gaze, but it was like his body was frozen; refusing to comply with his very will. His eyes widened as the face above him back so much more clear. Papa? The face above him was definitely his father’s, though it was younger, several years younger, with none of the laughter lines on his father’s face that gave away his age. The lips on his father’s face contorted, until he was grinning. No Eren wouldn’t call this grinning at all as his father’s lips stretched across his face and his eyes growing dark as he peered at Eren in a sadistic manner. His eyes twinkling in a way that sent chills down Eren’s spine and left goosebumps dotting the expanse of his exposed skin. Papa?

 _“Don’t call me that.”_ The monotone whisper left his father’s lips, those eyes still dark and twinkling with a dark and contained anger that bore into Eren’s skin, they seemed to twitch and dance with a glee as if his father was planning the best and sadistic way to flay his skin. _“Don’t call me father.”_ That same smirk was on his lips, but the corner of it curled upwards as if his father knew something that he didn’t. _“Your father’s over there.”_ Eren’s eyes followed Levi’s gaze as a sudden chill wrapped around his body. His mouth opened wide in terror as a tall figure stood at the side of his bed, glasses resting on the bridge of his nose; a spider web of cracks dotting the glass and blood splattered against the entire thing, blood trickled from a thin line down the corner of his mouth to his jaw; there was a gaping wound in his chest and his skin was as white as bone.

 _“Eren, Eren, Eren.”_ This man seemed to whisper as he reached out with an outstretched hand towards him. Eren’s mouth opened wide in a silent scream as he watched as that hand reached closer and closer towards him. Papa! He wanted to shout as he gurgled, his head whipping back to see his father’s hand pressed tightly around his throat; cold hands pressed tightly to his airway, thumbs pressing against his Adam’s apple, his face twisted into confusion as his hands clawed at his father’s own. Blood seeped to the older man’s hands as Eren’s nails dug into the skin, leaving long nail wounds behind as the pressure on his neck just increased further. 

            His father’s features seemed to morph and change, becoming less human and more beast-like. Tears as hot as lava brushed down his cheeks as his vision became blurry, fading at the edges until he could barely see, his fingernails dug tightly into his father’s hands as he stared up at what he could no longer call a human face. The teeth were more like saber tooth tiger’s fangs, the skin was as black as ink and those eyes weren’t human, there were no irises and the sclera was pitch black as coal.

            Eren screamed a deep and guttural sound as he thrashed against the bed, the sheets beneath him becoming tangled beneath his body. His skin was drenched in cold sweat, as scream after scream poured out from his mouth, his eyes screwed shut as the nightmares playing in his head refused to let their grip of him go. He tossed and twisted on the sheets as the door to his room opened. He screamed even louder as strong hands gripped his shoulders and shook him awake. _“Eren! Eren! Wake up!”_ Eren’s eyes snapped open as he stared at the face above him, a blend of human features and bestial ones imprinted into his mind. He immediately sat up and pushed his father away; shivering with fear and the cold sweat that beaded on his skin, he pushed himself along the bed until his back was touching the wall. He pulled his legs close to his chest, so that his chin was resting on top of his knees as he wrapped his arms around himself.

            His father stood at the corner of the bed, his brows pressed together with worry, he leaned against the bed, his arm held out towards Eren and nearly touching his shoulder. Eren pushed himself away from the touch; his entire body was shaking as his mind was caught in in that thin line between his nightmare and the real world, he could feel his stomach churn and flip as if he was going to be sick; he swallowed forcing the bile back down. The room was silent as he buried his face into his legs. He couldn’t bring himself to even stare at his father right now or even apologize or offer an explanation for the way he was acting. Eren could feel the bed slightly dip at the end as the mattress accepted his father’s weight.

            They sat like that for some time, Eren breathed softly into the denim of his jeans as he waited for his pounding heart to steady its erratic beat. He glanced at his father when the light in the natural light in the room had seemed to dim considerably; he probably guessed that it was now later in the evening. He watched the steady rise and fall of his father’s back from where he sat, He craned his neck as he leaned close towards the edge of the bed to get a look at his father’s face, his eyes were closed and the muscles in his face were relaxed. Eren sighed as he leaned back into the position he was in earlier, pressing his hands to his face, he took a deep breath. _What was that dream?_ He had never seen that woman nor that man before outside of his dreams, maybe they had appeared in something he had seen on TV? Or they were the fabrications of his mind? He wanted to believe that, he wanted to believe such notions, but there was an undeniable feeling of…familiarity that hovered over the images of that man and women that were quickly fading from his mind.

            He glanced at his father once more as he scooted off the bed, his feet landing softly against the wooden floor. He was quiet so as not to wake his father as he crossed his room, moving quickly towards the book bag he had tossed onto the floor the day before, unzipping the bag he reached within and pulled out the sketchbook his father had bought to replace the one he lost and also the small bag of sketching pencils he always had on him. He settled onto the floor, making himself as comfortable as one could get sitting on a hot wooden floor, he flipped to a clean page and reached into the small bag, pulling out a mechanical pencil he hesitated as he pressed the thin lead against the paper. He glanced up at his father, who was still sleeping on the bed. His elbows resting on his knees and there was the slow rhythmic rise and fall of his chest. Eren turned his gaze back to the sketchbook and let himself be consumed by his work as he stroked downwards with the pencil.

 

            Levi jerked in his sleep, his eyes snapping open as his hands flew to either side of him. He blinked in confusion, his lips tugging into a frown as he brought up a hand to rub the sleep out of his eyes. Now slightly more awake than he was before, Levi glanced up at the ceiling once more confused for a few moments as to why his room felt a little different, he turned his head and glanced around the room, quickly coming to the realization that he was in Eren’s bedroom and speaking of Eren- Levi thought as he sat up in the bed. Where was he? Levi groaned as he moved off of the bed and shuffled towards the bedroom door as he passed through the entryway the scent of food caressed his nose. His stomach grumbled in hunger as his tongue darted out to moisten his lips, he hadn’t had much for breakfast this morning before he ran, just a slice of toast and a fried egg along with coffee. He glanced back to the room, noticing that the few beams of sunlight that came into the room were tinged rather darkly, it must’ve been late in the evening. His mouth watered as he headed towards the stairs, the tantalizing smell of food growing stronger and stronger as he descended down each step. Levi made it down to the first floor and headed straight towards the kitchen. The lights were on and the harshness of them lighted up the hallway as if it was still morning.

            Levi walked towards the kitchen, he paused underneath the entryway and leaned against the archway of the kitchen as his eyes tracked Eren’s every move as he skittered around the kitchen. He was shredding a thick block of asiago cheese, grabbing a handful and throwing it into the skillet he had simmering on the stove. Levi’s mouth watered as the scent of melting cheese floated towards him.

 _“What are you making?”_ He watched as the muscles in Eren’s back tightened his grip on the wooden spoon in his hand became firmer and he paused for a brief moment, before using the spoon to stir the cheese concoction he had going on in the skillet. _“Chicken alfredo.”_ It seemed to be his only response and he said nothing more after that as he flitted about the kitchen, busying himself with cooking and other menial tasks, never so much as once glancing over into the general direction where his father stood.

            Levi could feel the indentations of the archway forming onto his shoulder as he leaned against it for so long, he eased some of his weight off from it and crossed his arms in front of his chest as the silence between the two was nothing more than that. The only sounds in the kitchen seeming to come from the stove, the bubbling and popping sounds of the liquid concoction in the skillet and the soft _tinks_ of the kitchen knife as Eren dragged it through the seasoned raw pieces of chicken.

 _“Are you ignoring me?”_ The knife went still against the cutting board, its tip pressing into the raw meat; blood pooled underneath it, just for a moment Levi averted his eyes away from it.

            There was a moment of silence between the two, before the knife resumed its motions once more. _“…Non.”_ He was lying, Levi’s eyes narrowed, he really would have to teach him how to do better. Levi tucked himself against the archway he was leaning against, watching as Eren set about finishing the final preparations for the meal.

            The two sat down in silence at the dinner table, digging into their meals with disinterested airs or at least that was only Eren. Levi unnervingly stared at Eren in between every forkful of his meal. He watched as his son picked at his food, pushing the noodles around on his plate with the tip of his fork, his eyes staring down at the dish; hazy and unfocused, and his mind on something else other than the moment right now. Eren placed his fork onto the plate, producing a sharp tinkering noise as he did so. He pushed himself away from the table, _“I’m not hungry.”_ He muttered as he stood up from his chair and walked out of the kitchen. He shook his head, contemplating on what to do with his son when his phone chimed in his pocket. He placed his fork down and reached into his jeans pocket, pulling out his phone and swiping the screen to reveal a single lone text from Hanji. He snorted at her text, it was a single book emoji with: at Erwin’s, typed out in all capital letters.

            He wondered what this was about.

 

            Eren licked his lips as his stomach growled in hunger. He shouldn’t have skipped dinner, but he was glad he had made a large quantity of the chicken alfredo to last him and his father for at least a week. Speaking of his father, Eren’s eyes flickered to the sketchbook beneath his hand, his right hand cramped in pain a little as he curled his fingers inward to his palm, with his other hand he flipped the sketchbook open and flipped past pages and pages filled with other drawings. He reached the last page of the sketchbook. He pressed his fingers against the page and traced over the smooth lines of his drawing, brown reptilian scales, tinted with an almost yellowish tip coated human skin, his fingers curved down the sharp angles of the face, gliding over the jaw and tracing over between pink lips that had an almost purplish-blue tinge to them, his fingers seemed to slowly caress the picture with an almost tender embrace, the padding of them becoming smudged by the leftover residue from the colored pencils. His fingers traveled down the tongue, that stuck out from betwixt the lips, traveling and traveling, his fingers traveling more so than it should; in place of a human tongue there was a reptilian one instead, the tip of it ending at a blank space on the page, his spine shivered as he took a good look at the drawing. It felt like the tongue was reaching out towards him, tasting the space that was around him, the space that he took up. The eyes were no better, long gone were the eyes of a human, but in their place the slit eyes of a snake. They stared at him, chilling his skin and raising goosebumps along his arms. The drawing was hypnotic and surreal as if the moment he dared to look away from it, scaled hands would reach out towards him; he blinked, subconsciously moving his right hand up toward his neck, lightly holding it as remnants of his dream and the feeling of gasping for nonexistent air suddenly coursed through his body. He sucked in his lower lip as he leaned forwards, breathing in through his nose and letting it out through his mouth, repeating the process over and over until he could the pulse racing beneath his skin steady, he licked his lips, suddenly having the feeling that they were dry. His shook his head yet again as he stared down back at the drawing, his hand gripped the sketchbook tightly. He glanced over the drawing once more and flipped his sketchbook close, tossed it on the bed and got up from it as his stomach rumbled loudly. He smacked his lips together as he headed walked out of his bedroom, the thought of cold pasta made his stomach rumble again.

 

 _“Erwin? Four eyes? Where the hell are you two?”_ Levi called out as he shrugged himself out of his coat, tossing it onto one of the pegs of Erwin’s coat stand near the door. He slipped off his shoes and walked down the hallway and into the living room of the apartment. There were two mugs of coffee on the lacquered table; Levi held his hand over one and could feel the heat radiating off of the liquid. Where were these two? He made his way out of the living room, placing his hands on his hips, he glanced left and right wondering where these two idiots possibly could have gone and his gaze fell on the closed bedroom door. Really?

            Levi walked towards the door, his hand curled around the knob as he twisted it and pushed the door open. Hanji let out a thick moan as Erwin finger’s gripped her pelvic tightly and he thrusted upwards, her hair was clinging to her sweat drenched face. She smiled lazily at Levi as she saw him standing at the door. _“Are you going to stand there all day or join us?”_ She bit her lip, suppressing the small squeal that threatened to fall from her lips as Erwin deemed it a great moment to thrust his hips upward, her fingers caressed his jawline; Levi slowly shut the door behind him.

 

            The smell of soap and the warmth of a hot shower lingered on Levi’s skin. His slightly damp hair lay flat against his skull, a droplet of water curved down his cheek and he absent-mindedly brushed it away as he lifted the warm mug of tea to his lips. _“You still didn’t find out who hacked into your computer?”_ He asked, before taking a sip of the liquid.

            Hanji shook her head, cradling her own mug in her hands as she pulled her knees closer to her chest. _“Whoever did it was good. They completely wiped all of their trails and bounced off of several towers and hijacked IP addresses as well. For all I know they could be in France or somewhere across the world. Tracking them is nearly impossible.”_ Early impossible for someone of her caliber. Just who were these people? Hanji shook her head, _“enough of this talk about work. Levi, how is ma neveu adorable?”_

_“A bratty teenager like always.”_

            Hanji smiled, _“that’s good; that’s really good. He hasn’t been having any more nightmares has he?”_

            Levi’s mind turned back to this morning, when Eren had crawled away from him, pure fear in his eyes. That look he had given him, had been the very same one when Levi had done what he did the day they had been training. He glanced down at his hands. Was his own son afraid of him? His silence must have been enough to unnerve Hanji. _“Levi? Are you still with us?”_ He blinked, his hands gripped the mug tightly now. _“I’m fine. Don’t worry about me like that. And no, Eren’s been sleeping soundly for the past few weeks.”_

            Hanji nodded at that, _“just tell me if his condition changes, I can get him some sleeping pills if he needs them.”_

            A sharp ringing of bells suddenly filled the apartment, he watched as Erwin cursed under his breath; placing his mug onto the table before he rushed out of the room to retrieve his phone.

 _“Levi, what aren’t you telling me?”_ Levi glanced at Hanji, her eyes no longer held a playful psychotic gleam to them.

 _“If there was anything to tell Hanji, you’d be the first one to know.”_ She smiled then, and Levi knew that it was forced, one of those smiles she wore when she knew she was being lied to.  _“I’m glad to know that.”_

            Erwin walked back into the room and Levi had never been more thankful for an opportunity to no longer talk about the matter at hand. _“Erwin?”_ Levi glanced at Erwin, his face was pale and taught, his eyes glassy and distant. He bent over the coffee table and grabbed the remote, he turned to the TV and turned it on, quickly flipping through the channels until he reached a news station.

            Levi’s brows pressed together and Erwin’s unusual and rather paranoiac behavior, _“Erwin, what’s going on?”_

            He refused to answer; turning up the volume of the TV instead. Both Levi and Hanji were quite perplexed by their friend’s sudden and mysterious behavior, Levi could feel a lump forming in his throat and Hanji muttering a few choice curses in her native mother tongue. A male announcer was on scene at a cemetery in Germany, police walked around tombstones, picking their way through flowers the loved ones of the dearly departed had placed down in remembrance. Levi’s fingers curled inwards towards his palm, he barely even winced as his nails dug into the tender flesh of his skin. He watched as a tall and blonde haired man directed other officers around the scene, his back was towards the camera so he could barely get a good look at the face. The announcer was telling the audience about the task force assigned to get to the truth behind the Yeager’s death, recently acquiring a warrant to exhume Dr.Yeager’s body. Levi could feel his stomach churning and doing little flips. _“Turn it off,”_ He heard himself whisper, the TV kept playing. _“Turn it off!”_ He rose up from his seat, Erwin glanced at him, still pale faced and wearing that same expression. His thumb pressed down rather harshly on the power button of the remote.

            His feet moved faster than his mind did, by the time Hanji was yelling his name at the top of her lungs, he had already slipped on his shoes and was out the door. The cold night air, felt comforting against the feverish heat of his skin as he walked out of the apartment complex. His feet were taking him away from the building before he even noticed it, he started off in a hurried walk; step after step on the sidewalk, barely spending a moment where he once stood, his hurried walking quickly turned into a light sprint, his arms hung loosely at his sides as he tucked them in closer to his sides. He sprint turned into a full-fledged run, his feet pounded against the sidewalk, with no destination in mind he just ran, ran as his blood pumped in his veins, ran until he could hear the pounding of his heart and every breath he took. He ran sharply around corners, through back alleys and ran across a few sparsely driven streets.

            His lungs were burning and his calves felt like they had been beaten repeatedly, when he decided that he needed to come to a stop. He looked around as he leaned forward, placing his hands on his knees and taking heaving gasps, after a few moments he straightened his posture and settled for walking over towards a bench and plopped down in it. He sighed as he reached into his left pocket, expecting to grab his packet of cigarettes only to discover that they weren’t there. He groaned as he let his head fall backward, so that his face was turned upwards to the star filled sky. He had left them in his jacket pocket…which unfortunately was in Erwin’s apartment.

            He heard the shaking off a box. _“Are you looking for these?”_ Hanji called out as she walked towards the bench and sat down beside him. She opened the carton and handed him one of the cigarettes, which he gratefully accepted. A flicker of a flame, light up the dark night as Hanji leaned forward, cupping her hand over the flame and lighting Levi’s cigarette, she capped it and handed the lighter over towards Levi, who pocketed it. He took a long drag of the cigarette, blowing the smoke out through his nose in a steady stream.

 _“Wanna talk about what happened back there?”_ Hanji said after some time had passed, her fingers drumming against the weather worn wood of the bench.

            Levi took another long drag of the cigarette; he shook his head.

            Hanji pressed her back into the bench, she turned her face towards him. She stretched a hand out towards him and squeezed his knee. _“I’m here you know, whenever you need me.”_

            He nodded. He knew.

 

**July 1 st**

****5…4…3…2…The bell rang throughout the school for the final time. The hallways were brimming to the seam with students upon students who were rushing to the doors, eager to escape school and began their summer vacation. Teachers poked their heads out into the hallway, shouting at the large stream of students to suspend their running and calmly walk out of the school; the teachers that were unfortunately in the hallway at this time, quickly flattened themselves against the wall, before they got caught up in the stream of students and turned into a human pancake.

             Eren unfortunately found himself in the thickest part of the swarm, bodies pressed against his, making it difficult for him to escape, pushing him forward and jostling him in between others. Bright lights shown in his eyes as the throng pushed him out through the front doors of the school and thrusted him into the daylight, he felt a slim hand wrap around his wrist and pull him out from in between the throng of people and lead him to the safety of the sidelines. Eren opened his arms and pulled Mikasa into a hug. _“I’m alive! Thank you so much.”_ She smiled as she wormed her way out of his embrace. Eren sighed as she shut his eyes and placed his hands on his hips. _“I thought I was going to die back there.”_

            The two walked away from the still pulsing throng of students to where their friends had gathered by the gate near the school, busily going over their summer plans. Eren smiled as he saw Sasha placing her arms of her stomach, a loud rumble seemed to shake the air as she groaned. _“I’m dying of hunger!”_ She complained, _“Why can’t we just talk about this after we get some food.”_ Her stomach rumbled again for effect. Her arm latched onto Connie’s arm.

 _“Sasha!”_ Connie cried out at his girlfriend’s insanely strong grip.

            She wailed as her other hand gripped the flesh of her stomach, she groaned in mock agony as she slowly suck to her knees. _“Dying…of…hunger.”_

            The circle of friends snickered at Sasha’s rather normal antics. Jean rolled his eyes, _“we just had lunch.”_

             Sasha lamented, _“yea, but that was an hour ago. I’m hungry. I’m dying of hunger, my stomach is slowly eating itself!”_

 _“Um-if you’re hungry, I have half a baguette left that I could give you.”_ Eren’s head turned to see Krista slowly walk towards the group, she rifled through her bag, before pulling out a small brown paper bag that must have contained the aforementioned bread. She let out a little gasp of surprise as Sasha launched herself at the girl in the blink of an eye; the paper bag in her hand was gone and Sasha was tearing into the baguette with her teeth, tears were streaming down her face as she graciously thanked Krista through a mouthful of the baguette, crumbs covering her face. _“You’re a queen; a lifesaver!”_ She cried out as she hastily chewed and swallowed the bread in her mouth, before proceeding to bow in front of the startled and abashed girl.

 _“Sasha, if you keep that up I think you’ll end up scaring away Krista.”_ Marco called out seeing the way Krista held herself in a way that he knew she was uncomfortable about the whole ordeal. _“Why don’t we all continue talking about summer vacation plans once we finally get off of school grounds?”_

             They started to make their way from the school grounds, but Eren looked back and noticed that Krista still stood in the same place. _“Hey, Krista. Aren’t you coming with us?”_

             Krista's eyes flashed in surprise at that, she inclined her head and rushed after them.

 

_“So, Eren what are you going to do once we get to Germany?”_

            Eren pulled the straw away from his lips and furrowed his brows at Armin’s question, he could feel the multitude of glances being exchanged at the table. _“What trip to Germany?”_

_“Oh come one Ackerman,”_

            Jean smacked him on the shoulder, _“you know about the trip, you’re just pulling our legs here.”_

            Something on his face must have informed Jean that he really truly didn’t know about any trip they were talking about from the way the smile on Jean’s face seemed to slide off.

 _“Eren don’t you remember getting a packet in class about this?”_ Armin asked.

            Eren paused, remembering that months prior he had indeed received a very thick packet from Mme. Petra; he had shoved it into his bag as he was rushing out the door and made a note to look it over later, he remembered coming home and tossing his bag onto his bed as he left his room to take a shower and later when he had went into his bag, he couldn’t find the packet he had placed in it. He simply brushed it off as having lost it on his way from school. _“I lost it.”_

_“Well still there was a call sent out to all the houses a few weeks ago about the trip. Didn’t your dad tell you about it?”_

            Eren shook his head. _“When do you guys leave?”_

_“…next week.”_

_“Oh…”_ Eren smiled at his friends, _“don’t worry about me.”_ He waved his hand in the air. _“I’ll be fine. It’s only for a month, it’s really not that long.”_

            Eren simply shook his head, silencing his friend’s unspoken concerns. _“Ah, I’m not going on the trip either.”_ Eren glanced down at the table towards Krista.

_“At least I won’t be alone.”_

 

            Eren walked into the house, shutting the door behind him he could hear the soft murmuring of voices coming from the kitchen. He walked towards the kitchen and wasn’t necessarily surprised to see his father and Erwin sitting at the kitchen table together.

 _“You’re home late.”_ Eren walked towards the fridge, opened and retrieved a bottle of water. He shrugged his shoulders. _“I was hanging out with my friends.”_ He uncapped the bottle and took a swig of water as he walked towards the kitchen island and took a seat on one of the bar stools. _“Speaking of my friends...did you know they’re going on a trip to Germany?”_

_“You’re not going.”_

             Eren was taken back by his father’s rather curt response. 

_“What?”_

_“I said you’re not going and that’s final.”_

            Eren hopped off of his seat, _“you didn’t even give me a chance to speak.”_

_“You’re speaking now, aren’t you?”_

            Erwin reached across the table and laid a hand down on Levi’s arm, his face was devoid of emotion, but his eyes conveyed all they needed to.

            Eren groaned in frustration, _“why are you being like this? You told me I couldn’t do what I wanted, then you allow me to be free. I can’t even go a single country away and you’re already overreacting-”_

_“Eren. That’s enough.”_

            Erwin’s voice was strong, cutting through the thick tension of the room.

            Eren’s eyes blazed on him, their blue-green hue burning like shiny jewels _, “non! He’s always overreacting, I feel like a trapped bird with the things I’m unable to do that kids my age are able to. I can’t even walk down the street without having to inform you every 3 minutes where I am. God, you’re so insufferable!”_ He spun on his heels and stormed out of the room.

            Levi sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as Eren’s feet pounded on the steps and the slamming of the bedroom door seemed to vibrate the very foundation of the house.

 

**July 7 th**

****Eren stuck his hands into his jean’s pockets and kicked the small rock in front of him. The rock sailed in the air, before striking the low wall across from him, a few inches away from a small orange and black cat. It arched its back, the hairs on it standing up as it hissed at him and darted into some bushes near it. _“This isn’t fair.”_

 _“I know it’s not fair, but he probably has a good reason for not letting you go on the trip.”_ Armin replied in an attempt to placate Eren’s foul mood, he glanced at Mikasa for support.

            Mikasa shook her head. _“I’m agreeing with Eren on this.”_

            Eren scoffed, _“you know what we do every single summer? Drive somewhere in France, just drive! Even if it’s to Marseille we drive. I’ve never been on a plane my entire life! Hell I’ve never been outside of the country. And he’s still acting like the same ultra-overprotective person he was a few months ago.”_

             The muscles in Eren’s body loosened as he felt his friends wrap their arms around him. _“Eren, it’s okay.”_ Mikasa said, as she pulled herself away from Eren. _“Cheer up okay. Next summer we can just hop on a plane and go somewhere, wherever you want.”_

            Eren nodded his head and murmured _, “merci.”_

            A car horn blared in the distance, Eren sighed as Mikasa pressed a kiss to both of his cheeks and pulled him into an embrace. _“That’s my parents.”_ Eren moved towards Armin and gave the blond boy a hug, they let go and Armin squeezed Eren’s arm, a look in his eye as if he wanted to say something more. _“We’ll see you after the trip.”_ He waved his hand, shooing them away.

            He waved goodbye as Mikasa and Armin rushed to her parent’s car across the street and hoped in. As the car drove down the street and into traffic, becoming smaller and smaller with each passing second, the smile on his face slowly slid off. He turned on his heel, startled to see his father leaning against his car and yet, part of him wasn’t even that surprised to see him there in the first place. He stared at his father, their eyes interlocked in an intense stare. Eren started to walk towards him…and instead walked straight past him, he didn’t look back. Not once, as he stuck his hands back into his pockets and walked down the street.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so you reached the end of the chapter! Congratulations! I'm now officially proud to announce that we've closed one of the arc's for this story and just entered what I like to call the divergence arc (kudo points to anyone who guesses in the comments what the title of this arc might mean for the characters). I plan to use this arc to flesh out a few of our rather more mysterious characters that seem to be bugging you guys and well chugging further into the story that I have mapped out in my head. All I can say is hold onto your seat guys, things from here on out are just about to get a whole lot rougher.


	11. Blindfold Chess

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a new chapter and also a record breaker for me, I somehow managed to write this in less than 3 days with almost little to no sleep. This chapter was wildly quite different from what I had planned originally, but it fits into the story nonetheless and provides some very great insight on what has to be a few of the most mysterious characters within this fic, but anyway enjoy!

**July 12 th**

            A shiver traveled up Eren’s spine as the Popsicle glided against his teeth. In contrast, his skin was dripping with sweat in the exhaustive heat that plagued all of France this week it seemed. The city seemed to absolutely be melting alongside this unbearable heat as many of the shops had turned their AC units up to the highest setting possible and even that still seemed to do very little against protecting the people against the heat. Eren fanned himself as the sweat dripped down his neck, next to him Krista was faring far better than he. Her sundress hung loosely against her body as a light breeze caused the dandelion pattered fabric to swirl around her legs and the rather large summer hat she wore atop her head shielded her face from the harsh rays of the sun. She glanced at him, seemingly unperturbed by the intense summer heat and smiled at him.

            _“How can you stand the heat here? I suppose it’s always cool in Estonia.”_

            _“It’s not that bad, there are days when it’s hot in Estonia; the weather here isn’t something that’s unbearable.”_

            _“Oh then I guess whenever it gets hot here, I can just go to Estonia and visit you sometimes.”_ Eren watched as the joyful smile on her face fell, her eyes became glassy and distant. She stared straight ahead, but he knew she wasn’t staring at anything in particular.

            _“I don’t think I’ll be going back to Estonia.”_ She murmured so softly that Eren almost thought she hadn’t said anything at all. He wanted to ask her what she meant by that, but she quickly changed the topic to a rather recent note. _“How are Armin and Mikasa?”_

_“They’re doing well. I talked to them on skype and they love Berlin so far.”_ He shivered again as he swirled his tongue around the Popsicle and bit down into it with his teeth. The coldness of the summer treat ran its fingers down his spine. _“Krista can I ask you a question?”_ She nodded. _“Why didn’t you go on the trip?”_

            Krista paused for the length of a heartbeat, _“this actually might surprise you, but I’m really terrified of airplanes.”_ She placed a hand over her heart as she and Eren came to a stop in the middle of the park they were walking in. He watched as her face paled even in the overbearing heat of summer and as the hot rays of the sun beat down on her skin. His eyes scanned the crowd that populated the park, the park was teeming with the diverse citizens of Nantes seeking to escape from the blistering heat of the summer sun and the sweltering temperatures that seemed to envelope the entire country into its burning arms. Her face seemed to pale rapidly under the summer sun.  _“Krista?”_ He yelped when she suddenly grabbed his hand and pulled him towards one of the many exits that dotted the large park. Eren was surprised at the strength Krista possessed as she quickly pulled him through the park, weaving both of their bodies through the crowd of pedestrians as they maneuvered towards the park exit. What was going on? Eren looked behind his shoulder, his eyes darting from face to face in the crowd. What was Krista so afraid of? It was then that he spotted him; a rather tall dark haired man who was nimbly and calmly walking through the crowd a few meters behind them, dark sunglasses wrapped around his eyes and Eren’s eyes narrowed. Where they being monitored? Eren dug his heels into the ground, bringing him and Krista to a halt in the middle of the park. Her eyes were wild with fear as she whipped her head around to stare at him in confusion.

            Rage and anger boiled within him. He couldn’t believe this! First it wasn’t trusting him and now it was this!?

            _“Eren come on.”_ Krista tugged his hand; he shook his head. He wasn’t going to be forced to abide by someone else’s rather ridiculous rules. _“Eren!”_ He glanced at Krista, he could see the wild fear that danced in her eyes. He bit the inside of his lower lip, as she glanced around the park. His eyes lit up as he saw a chance for the two to shake of their pursuer. He gripped her hand as he took the lead, calmly pulling them through the sea of people that crowded the park; their steps were slow and steady as they made their way to the park exit. Eren could feel his heart hammering between his ribs as cold sweat peppered his skin, making his hold on Krista’s hand loose, he could feel every single fiber of his clothing rubbing against his skin; it made him feel hypersensitive; too aware, but maybe that was a good thing? They passed through the gates of the park, he wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, but he knew he couldn’t do that yet. They walked just a little farther and came to a stop at the end of the sidewalk, waiting for the stoplight that covered the main road to turn red.

            The light phased through colors until it finally turned red and Eren was walking across the street towards the bus bench. He sat down and lightly gripped Krista’s fingers as a sign for her to follow his actions too, she glanced at him; worry and confusion written across her face like a simple children’s book. He squeezed her hand again and she seemed to at least understand him then, she took a seat beside him and he held his lips close to her ear. _“Act natural,”_ he whispered before he pressed his lips against her cheek. A laugh bubbled to her lips and spilled out into the open air as she pretended to laugh at something he had said. From the corner of his eye’s he could the man that was tailing them stood slightly behind a pair of parents holding onto the hands of their child. _“Eren.”_ Krista whispered from in betwixt clenched teeth. He glanced down at the road as the bus pulled closer and closer towards the bus bench. He stood up and Krista stood up beside him.

            _“What do we do now?”_ Her eyes were wide with fear as both of them could see through the lightly tinted windows of the bus as the man started to walked towards the bus.

            _“You trust me.”_ Was Eren’s only reply as he pulled Krista onto the bus and walked down the aisle until they reached the middle section, he motioned for Krista to slide into the seat and he slid in after her. He laced his fingers with hers and squeezed; _“Get ready,”_ he whispered as they both watched as the man walked onto the bus and proceeded to the last row of empty seats that were located in the far back of the bus. Eren watched as the bus driver glanced in his side mirrors, checking to see if there were any pedestrians who were running towards the bus, he reached over his hand’s grasping the lever that automatically closed the doors. _“Now!”_ Eren shouted as he bolted up from his seat, his grip tight on Krista’s hand as he pulled her out of her seat and raced towards the bus doors, he could feel their pursuer stand up in surprise as the two teens reacted in a way that made him knew his cover had been exposed. The two raced towards the bus entrance, Eren could feel his heart hammering in his chest as he watched the doors slowly reaching out towards one another, he willed his legs to move faster and he could feel his heart leaping into his throat as he slipped through the small gap in between the doors. He could hear Krista’s yelp as the closing doors brushed against the tip of her fingers.

            Eren whipped his head around to see their pursuer slamming his fists down against the shut bus doors. His dark eyes burning with a wild hatred, Eren smiled as he stuck his middle finger up at him and turned, running down the street with Krista’s hand in his still.

 

            A peal of laughter filled the air as Krista wrapped her arms around her stomach and doubled over.

            Eren stared in stunned silence at the rather quite unusual reaction from the quite girl and based on the furtive and raised brow glances that passerby’s were giving the two teens. Krista’s reaction to the events of the past hour were rather strange. Krista straightened herself as the remnants of her laughter died within her throat, she brushed tears from her eyes and stared at Eren. _“Thank you for that; I’d thought we’d have been toast back there.”_ Krista blinked a few times as she raised a hand to her chin, cocking her head to the side she asked, _“Who was that guy? Don’t you find it strange that he was following us?”_

            A scowl settled itself on Eren’s lips, _“I think about why he was following us.”_ Settled so deeply into his thoughts, Eren didn’t notice the slight change in Krista’s face; the way her eyes narrowed and darkened, the way her posture became stiffer.

            _“Do you think you’ll be safe going home?”_

            She nodded, _“why don’t we try going to that café I told you about next time?”_

            He replied with a nod of his head and stalked away, it seemed it was time for him to have a chat with his father.

 

            “My, my. Little princess just what trouble are you getting yourself in?” Ymir purred, peering through the binoculars in her hands down at the street corner where Krista stood, watching Eren’s back as he disappeared into the folds of the Nantes citizenry. She hesitated for a few moments after he had disappeared from her line of sight, before she took off down the street, making it to the midpoint of the block, before she squeezed her way through the thin gap that existed between a house and a patisserie. “Don’t you two know it’s not nice to sneak up on someone when they’re busy?” Ymir pulled the binoculars away from her face, she turned her head to regard Reiner and Bertolt who carefully picked their way across the he tiled roof as if it was mere child’s play.

            “We know why you’re here.” Bertolt called out to the young dark skinned woman in English, his words betraying a slight accent that pressed itself against his tongue.

            “Oh?” Ymir raised a single, perfectly groomed brow. “Was that supposed to be a secret?”

            Bertolt stepped forward on the roof, “your mission is putting Eren in danger.”

            Ymir smiled, a cat like smirk that crinkled the skin around her eyes, “is your concern for him genuine or are you afraid that I’ll just fuck up you mission?” She uncrossed her legs and stood up on the roof, positioned precariously on the slanted edge. “Besides I’m the wrong person you’re complaining too.” She walked across the roof, pushing her way through Reiner and Bertolt. She nearly, oh so nearly lost her footing on the roof as a hand wrapped around her arm. She scowled staring into Bertolt’s face.

            “I’m not going to warn you again. Keep your mission far away from Eren, make sure he isn’t a part of it in anyway.”

            Ymir smiled as she leaned in close to him, their noses almost touching as she spoke. “Are you afraid the little bird will get hurt?” His grip on her arm tightened and he found himself blinking in confusion as spots of light danced in his eyes, blood dripped from his nose and soaked the light green t-shirt he wore. Ymir leaned on the balls of her feet, a smirk on her face as he glanced down at her blood smeared fist. In the blink of an eye, Ymir was running across the tiled rooftops of the Nantes houses. Bertolt wiped his hand across his face, smearing the blood even more as he shouted at Reiner to go after her. Ymir picked her way across the roofs with the grace of a cat, she hopped on one side of the roof and ran with all of her strength to the edge as she jumped into the air, for a few moments she seemed to float in thin air; hovering over the darkened alleyway, before she dropped down onto the graveled rooftop of the building next to the one she was on previously, she rolled to break her fall and turned around just as Reiner and Bertolt raced towards the edge of the roof, she smiled and blew a kiss at them as she ran towards the edge of that roof and leaped towards the tiled peak of the apartment complex’s windows.

            Reiner and Bertolt glanced at each other before making the decision to propel themselves off of the roof, they landed on the graveled roof below them and rolled to break their fall; they landed on their feet quickly and began to give chase after Ymir. Ymir jumped up slightly, jumping onto the roof as she raced across roof after roof with Reiner and Bertolt on her heels, the length of the roof that she was running on had a smaller roof that was accessible by a small ladder, she opted to jump up with all of her strength and gripped the wall with her hand as she pulled herself up and her knees hit the hard concrete, her heart was beating in her chest as she ran and ran, hopping along tiled roofs and jumping down onto the roofs of other buildings located closely to the one she was currently on.

            She panted slightly as she ran to the edge of the roof on one of Nantes most famous hotels, she looked down over the ledge at the busy street beneath her, and she definitely didn’t want to drop from this height. She hadn’t planned for anyone to scrap her remains off of the sidewalk. She could hear two sets of distinct feet’s running closer towards her, they stopped a few meters away from her; at least they were smart. “There’s nowhere else to run Ymir.” Bertolt called out, she turned her head to watch as he reached into the band of his jeans were undoubtedly he had a gun strapped on him.

            Ymir turned around, a smirk on her lips as she walked backwards, edging closer and closer to the eaves of the roof. “Never say there’s nowhere to run; there’s always options that you never see.” She took one final step backwards and seemed to float momentarily in the air before she disappeared. Reiner and Bertolt rushed forward hearing the chorus of screams from the crowd below down onto the street. The two looked down from over the edge of the roof and gazed down at the sidewalk. The pedestrians on the street instead of gazing downwards at a battered and bruised body, were looking up at the roof they stood on. Reiner and Bertolt exchanged a quick glance between the two, where-

            Reiner groaned as a leg sailed in the air, connecting with his jaw and sending his rather large frame flying backwards. His back crashed down against the roof as Ymir landed on the roof, her hand placed flat against the warm tiles, giving her a steady balance. She saluted the two teens as she pushed herself up and began to run across the roof, jumping off and disappearing into the alley below with no more than a soft thud.

            Bertolt sighed as he ran a hand through his hair, walking over towards his friend, he pulled him up. The blond groaned, placing a hand against his back and grimacing at the rather sore spot that he knew was going to be either a shade of red or some other color by tomorrow morning. “She’s dangerous,” Reiner groaned, “she’s going to cost us our mission.”

            Bertolt nodded, “I know, but I’ll make sure that won’t happen.”

 

            The door to the house slammed open, banging into the wall next to it with a loud thud that seemed to shake the entire frame of the house. Levi glanced at his father who sat directly across from him at the kitchen table, mopping up a few droplets of his tea with a napkin that had plopped from his tea cup. Levi stood up from the table as Eren stormed into the kitchen, hell on his ears and a storm cloud of fury hovering over him.

            _“I can’t believe you!”_ The words flew out of Eren’s mouth before Levi even had the time to fully rise from his chair. _“I actually thought you were trying to at least let me have a bit of freedom, but I see now that I never clearly even had any at all.”_

            Levi’s brows pressed together as he crossed his arms in front of his chest, his reading glasses rested on the bridge of his nose and threatened to slip off at any moment. _“Don’t you dare come into this house and raise your voice at me.”_

            _“I think I have the right to do anything I want at this point, especially if my basic human rights are being trampled upon!”_ Eren let out a frustrated groan, curling up his hands into fists. _“You always do things how you want to do them; it wasn’t enough that you prevented me from going to Germany, but you had to get someone to surveil me 24/7?”_

            Levi’s brow rose at this sudden choice of words, _“what do you mean by that?”_

            Eren shook his head as he scoffed in disgust, _“why am I even here?”_ He turned on his heels and was walked out into the hallway and headed towards the stairs.

            _“Get back here!”_ Levi shouted, _“don’t think you have the right to talk to our father like that!”_

            Eren laughed, a breath of wind that exited his mouth, _“you know sometimes I doubt that you’re really my dad.”_ The words were tossed out of his mouth with such malice that it caused Levi to slightly stumble back. Levi grimaced as the stairs groaned under the weight of pounding feet and the house shook once more with the slamming of Eren’s bedroom door.

            _“He didn’t mean that,”_ Kenny sipped on his tea, with the air of a parent who had once been in Levi’s situation before, _“you know how kids say unintended things during the heat of the moment.”_

            Levi shook his head as he walked back to his seat, _“what if he knows?”_

            Kenny placed down his teacup onto the table, _“I doubt he does, there’s no way he could have gotten any information of what occurred years ago. You and I both made sure nothing like this would have ever happened.”_

            Levi sighed, bowing his head and rubbing at the back of his neck with his right hand. _“Well what was he talking about someone surveilling him?”_ Levi scrunched up his nose as he glanced up and saw that his father was eyeing him with a suspicious look. _“Don’t look at me like that. I don’t have anyone tailing him.”_

            Kenny lifted up the teacup to his mouth again, before taking a sip. He polished off his tea, before deciding to speak once more. _“Do you think maybe someone else besides our little family knows what happened at the Yeager household?”_ Levi shook his head as his father hummed in contemplation to himself. _“I think I’ll be going home,”_ he pushed himself away from the table and up from the chair, casting a rather neutral look at his son, _“Levi…you might want to give mon petit-fils some space for the time being.”_ A smile lit up his face, _“he almost reminds me of you when you were his age.”_ Kenny’s smile grew wider on his face as he turned his back and started to walk towards the front door, he could hear his son chuckle at that.

 

            Krista tossed a look over her shoulder as she walked into lobby of her apartment building, she swallowed thickly as she speed walked towards the stairwell, bypassing the elevator and began to ascent to the 8th floor. She glanced warily at many of the apartment complex’s various residents who passed her on the stairs, the events of this morning having left her in a state of paranoid panic. She clambered up the steps, letting out a breath in relief as she finally reached the landing of her floor, her heart was pounding in her chest and it hadn’t struck her that she had been so tense before she came into the building. She glanced down the hallway; left and right, barely moving as she checked to make sure the hallway was completely devoid of other people. Her feet moved in rapid steps, the right first and then the left after it, moving quickly and silently to her apartment door in as little time as she could muster possible. She stood in front of her apartment door and got on the very tips of her feet as she swept a hand over the lintel; her fingers brushed against cold metal and she gripped it between her index and middle finger. She brought her hand down and inserted the key inside of the lock of the lock, before hearing a small click, she pushed the door open slightly as she stuck her apartment key into her bra, before stepping foot into the rather tiny dwelling. She closed the door behind her and scowled at the darkness that seemed to occupy the room. She remembered it had been extremely hot in the morning before she had left and that she had gotten up to pull down some of the shades in the apartment in order to relieve the space of this intense summer heat. Had she closed all of them this morning? She couldn’t remember.

            Her fingers pressed against the wall to her right near the door, reaching upwards for the light switch; she flipped it on and a harsh luminescent brightness flooded the combined living and dining area.

            “I was beginning to wonder when you were coming home.”

            Her eyes widened at the voice that occupied the space. Her safe space. The place she had called home for the past few months after her escape from- she shook her head, no, there was no using dwelling on that. Thinking about the past was what would get her killed and seeing as how past events had gotten her into this mess in the first place it was her intention to stay alive. She had turned around, her hand on the doorknob, before the voice spoke again. “There’s nowhere for you to go; you don’t have anyone in France or the entire world to turn to.” Those words sliced through her like a harsh winter wind. The words she wanted to stay were stuck on the tip of her tongue and she pressed it against her lower teeth. “ _’That’s not true my sister would help me_ ’ is what you’re thinking, right?” Krista pressed her lips tightly together. “Then maybe its better that I let you keep thinking that way.” Krista’s eyes widened, she turned away from the door and walked to the middle of the room, she glared at Ymir who sat on the only couch in the apartment, Krista’s only prized possession in her lap. She watched as the dark skinned girl idly flipped through the coffee colored tattered and frayed pages with a disinterested air.

            “What do you mean by that?”

            A smirk appeared on her lips, her eyes glinting with an all-knowing sheen. It felt like she was a cat who was batting its prey back and forth in between its paws before it finally sunk its teeth into it. “She’s dead.” Krista wrapped her arms around her body; it felt like all of the air in her had pushed out in one sudden moment, tears bubbled to the surface of her eyes, stinging and spilling down her cheeks as they formed a burning trail.

            “How?” She somehow manage to whisper, her voice low in the suddenly spacious and empty apartment.

            “A church fire; her, your siblings, the mum and some unfortunate members of the congregation where caught in the flames.” Krista shook her head in disbelief as her body shook in silence as the tears flowed more heavily now. “Look at the bright side-”

            “What bright side!” Krista shouted, tears coating her cheeks and her hands curled up into fists as her body shook in both anger and sorrow. “Do you think I would be happy about this? Do you think that I would be overjoyed that the only person in my entire life who loved me just died!?” Her voice filled the room; booming and reducing the usually confident Ymir to a shell of herself, the cheeky grin on her face faltered. “Just get out!” Krista doubled over, pulling her arms tighter against her body.

            Ymir pulled the book from her lap, setting it down on the coffee table in front of her. “Krista-”

            “Just get out. I don’t want to hear anything else you have to say. Ever since you’ve been in my life, it’s just been one painful thing after the other. Just please get out.” She sobbed.

            Hurt and pain were written all over Ymir’s face as she stared at the crying blonde girl, both unsure of what to do and feeling guilty all the same for actions and events that were beyond her control. She lifted her arms, her hands outstretched towards Krista, the desire to comfort her and console her were pulsing in her body, but she knew that wouldn’t help. She nodded at the girl as she curled her fingers into her palm and dropper her arms back down to her side. She tersely walked to the door and glanced at the girl who had barely made a single move. “…it’s good that they died…at least the funeral will force you to spend some quality time with your dad.” The cruel words had slipped out of her mouth like second nature, she had already hardened her skin as Krista looked up at her, her eyes red and puffy and shining with tears.

            “Fuck you.” The blonde spat at her like a double edged dagger.

            She let it bounce off of her as she opened the apartment door and stepped through it. Her grandfather was right, sometimes it was easier being the villain than it was trying to prove to everyone that you were a hero.

 

            She had been no more than five when her grandfather had laid his warm hand down on top of her head, mussing up her hair, her mother had spent all morning fussing over to the delight and bemusement of her father. She had laughed like any child her age would have, full of naivety and innocence that all children seemed to possess. Her grandfather had removed his hand and lifted her up, pulling her onto his lap as they sat in the garden where he explained to her the duties of their family.

            Their family had served as modern chevaliers to many of the noble households that still thrived in Britain, including the Reiss family that had seen more kings and queens being crowned in their family than many of the lesser and smaller houses had seen in centuries. Her grandfather and her father had seen to it that they protected the Reiss family with every single bone in their body and their lives if that’s what it had to come too. She remembered the look on her grandfather’s face, a look of sadness and disgust all mixed into one as he mentioned a young girl, slightly younger than her own age that she had to look over. A Reiss, but one who wasn’t at the same time. He had smiled at her, in that way of his, where he would smile and it would reach his eyes and the small wrinkles surrounding his mouth would crinkle. She could tell he didn’t feel exactly like his old regular self.

            It was three years later that she found herself in a nondescript black car that her father owned. Her mother was in the passenger’s seat, her mouth scowling and a single line on her forehead showing her frustration. Ymir glanced up at her grandfather who sat in the backseat beside her, he stared out the window, watching the forests roll by and only turning his head away from the window a few times to interject in her parents conversation when necessary. Ymir at her tender age had caught snips and pieces of it, understanding what she needed to understood and letting the things that confused her filter from her mind. They were going to visit this girl her grandfather had told her about a few years before. Her mother was shaking her head, every so often making remarks about the girl’s mother and her- Ymir’s brows pressed together at this word- affair with the master of the manner the two had previously been living at prior to the girl’s birth. She tightened her arms around the teddy bear in her lap, when her mother had made the remark to her father about the lady of the house throwing a fit at discovering the infidelity and ordering that the woman and the child be sent away; anywhere was fine, just anywhere but their home.

            The drive had seemed to take years. The sun was just a little bit below the tree line when they finally had arrive to a small chateau. Her father had pulled into the graveled driveway and the family had hopped out of the car. They had entered the home and the adults were lead into a large foyer to have drinks with the other adults and Ymir had been ordered to stay in the kitchen.

            She remembered drumming her feet against the legs of the chair; absolutely bored out of her mind as her eyes darted from one wall of the kitchen to the other. She pressed her stuffed bear closer to her chest as she heard some scuffling behind her. She turned her head and spotted a rather small and frail looking blonde girl, her hair was almost down to her knees and parts of it kept falling into her face, so she had to constantly push it away. A rather large blue book was pressed against the girl’s chest and she held onto it as if it was the only thing she had ever known in life. The girl blinked at her and Ymir waved, that must have spooked her, because the girl took to running away and hiding behind the legs of a much older girl who stood near the kitchen door.

            There was a soft smile on her face, and her long ebony hair only complimented the large light colored eyes that were set into her round face. She smiled lovingly at the young girl who was hugging the back of her leg, she turned on her heels and crouched down so that she was staring into the eyes of the young girl. “You know ladies aren’t supposed to run and hide behind other’s legs, they have to be strong and hold their heads up high.” The young girl nodded and the older one glanced at the kitchen door as the sound of voices floated to the room. “I have to go,” she said.

            “Don’t. Just stay for a few more minutes, I haven’t shown you my dollies.” The high pitched whine of the young girl was as clear as the bells in front of Ymir’s home that would tinkle and play soothing noises whenever the wind touched them.

            The older girl, held out her pinky finger, waiting until the younger one mimicked the action and hooked their pinkies together.

            “I promise next time I come back you can show me your dollies, but I really have to go.” She glanced at the door again, before pressing a quick kiss to the girl’s forehead, “remember, don’t tell anyone that I was here.” She stood up, took a quick glance at Ymir and was out of the kitchen as quickly as she had come.

            The kitchen door opened and Ymir watched as a rather elderly old man stood at the door, he peered down at the young girl, his nose pointed into the air with a look of disgust written across his face. Ymir glanced around him and could see her family standing just a few inches behind this old man. The young girl had pressed the book in her hands rather firmly against her chest at this point as if she could almost escape into the world within it.

            “What are you doing in here?” The old man’s voice was gravely and had a slight whistle to it, like a tea kettle releasing steam from its confines.

            “I was doing nothing,” the young girl was practically shaking in her shoes. The old man’s cold and dead eyes swept, slowly around the room.

            “You’re lying to me. I don’t like children who are liars. There was someone else in here.”

            “There wasn’t anyone in here sir.” Ymir could feel the disapproving stare of her mother. “Just me and her in here, talking is all.” The old man turned his eyes on her and Ymir could feel chills running up her back.

            “Alma!” A woman rushed into the room, she looked like an angel and an older version of the young girl that stood cowering before the old man. He motioned towards the girl. “Get someone to take her back to her room.” The woman nodded, as her eyes passed over the young girl, a complete and utter look of malice flashed in her eyes even as the young girl stared lovingly up at her. Ymir thought that was strange.

            “Ymir,” her father’s voice filled her thoughts, “come on we’re going home.”

            In the car she had glanced back at the chateau, on their way in she had thought the house to be warm and beautiful with its finely trimmed lawn and the warm light that covered the house from within, but as she pressed her cheek to the window she found it cold, a mask that hid and trapped all the dirty secrets beneath it.

            It had been nearly four more years after the time she had visited the house for her to see the blonde girl again. Her hair loose this time, falling down to her chest. She wore the uniform of her private school; a yellow blazer underneath a grey jacket and a navy blue skirt. She often wondered what color blinded geriatric crone had picked out the ridiculous colors for a school uniform. Her mother had tried to force her into a dress she had worn only a few months ago to her detest, it was all pink frills and laces and she had breathed a sigh of relief that her sudden growth spurt and her new rangy frame had caused the dress to be too tight near her arms and neck and the dress had barely reached the tops of her thighs. Her mother had merely shaken her head and made a remark that she had gotten her height from her father’s side of the family. So her mother had sent her off in her uniform, on an almost hour long drive with her grandfather to the chateau she hadn’t set foot in almost two years.

            They had barely even parked the car when someone had come out and escorted them into the foyer where they were told to wait. Ymir glanced around the room, taking in the musty and antique air of the books that were crammed into the shelves, some of them shone with what must have been years of dust as the dim rays of the sunset outside danced and bounced off of every corner of the room. They had waited for a long time as Ymir began to think about the way the nobility of Britain seemed to revel in their wealth and splurge it all on unnecessary things. The door to the foyer opened and ushered inside was the young girl Ymir had seen four years before. Ymir was surprised by the physical change that enveloped the girl, she had grown taller, but not as tall as Ymir, her head was just barely reached Ymir’s shoulder, and her hair had grown longer yet and was pulled back from her face and tied off with a ribbon. The greatest change Ymir could see that had taken place in the girl was her in her eyes. Her eyes were distant and forlorn, like those princesses her mother would often read to her about when she had been a small child. Ymir found herself lost in them as the two stared at each other, she swallowed thickly as it felt as if her own visage was being reflected back to her. As if instead of catching a glimpse at another person’s soul, her own appearance was being reflected back at her like she was a mirror.

            The old man was also behind her, he looked at Ymir’s grandfather who in turn glanced at her. “Ymir,” her grandfather began, “from this moment onwards, your duty is to protect her. Do you understand me?”

            Ymir nodded. She accepted that task. Ymir often wondered what her grandfather would think about the events that took place these last few years. She wondered if he would have scolded her, told her off and then offered her sound advice on what to do next on how to keep the person she was supposed to protect safe, even while shouldering the weight of the pain that had settled in her charge’s heart. She swallowed thickly as she kicked off her shoes and plopped down in her bed, her stomach growled in hunger as she mentally reminded herself to brew a pot of coffee. Be alert, be smart, be safe. Her fingers traveled up to her neck, she pressed down on the fabric of her shirt, feeling the cold metal that lay underneath it. Everything that had happened, all this trail of pain and suffering that dragged down with it everyone she loved. A feral scowl settled on her lips as her thoughts focused on the one link that connected all these tragedies- Yeager. Her fingers bunched up the fabric beneath her palm. She bit down on her lip, she was so invested in her thoughts that she didn’t register she had broken the fragile skin until the coppery taste of blood was fresh on her tongue. She swore, she was going to make Yeager pay and for that she wouldn’t be satisfied until she put a bullet between his eyes.


	12. Secrets

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise! I haven't updated in quite awhile, so I was really pushing myself hard to get this chapter done by Christmas and here we are! This chapter is twice as long for you guys and I have to say there's A LOT of interesting stuff that goes on in this chapter; a lot of action and character development that let's you guys really see a new perspective on some of the character's you love. Anyway please read the note at the end of this chapter where I'll talk about a few things more and also Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a good New Year to you all! Let's see where this story goes in the new year.

**August X**

            The droplet of water beaded on the ceiling, clinging for desperate life, before gravity won its battle and it fell; fell until it hit the bottom of the upturned metal can beneath the pipes. His head was pounding at the temples as he woke up; he could rough and course material scratching at his neck, was it a bag of some sort? He made an attempt to stand up from the chair he was sitting in, but he could hardly move an inch, he tried to move his wrists and was barely surprised to find that they were bound to the back of the chair with a thick rope; he attempted to free his wrists, but gave up after finding that his wrists were very much secure and it didn’t look like he was going anywhere anytime soon.

            He didn’t know where he was or even how long he sat there for; everything around him was drenched in silence except for the rhythmic _kthunk, kthunk, kthunk_ of the water hitting the bottom of bucket. He sat there in that chair for quite a very long time, he could feel the little bit of warmth that existed in wherever he was being held slowly disappear only to be replaced by a coldness almost akin with the temperatures of winter. He shivered against his bindings and squirmed a little in his seat as his bladder constricted and twisted as a reminder that he hadn’t gone to the bathroom in hours. _“Hello! Is anyone there!?”_ He first called out in his native French and then cycled through Chinese, Arabic, English and other phrases in various languages he knew. Hearing no response, fear began to creep into his bones as he remembered the sound of breaking glass and the room filling with smoke and Krista screaming. Krista! His mind turned to his friend whom he had last seen hours ago, safe and whole before he had ended up here, wherever here was for that matter. Where was she? He wondered to himself.

            He didn’t have much time to dwell on that thought as fear seized his heart as his head was pulled backward harshly, a hand gripped the bag covering his head, pulling at his hair and yanked his head backwards until his neck was touching the head of the chair and the wood was digging into his neck, making him as uncomfortable as possible. His body thrashed as a steady stream of water trickled over his face, soaking the bag so that it clung to his skin. He tried to turn his head away from the stream of water, but he couldn’t escape. His muscles tightened as the subconscious fear of drowning kicked in, his lungs were screaming in pain and his fingernails were raking at the sides of the chair before the water was pulled away from his face. His body thrashed against the chair as his lungs forced out the nonexistent water in his lungs. The bag was suddenly ripped off of his head and he blinked for a few moments as his eyes adjusted to his dimly lit surroundings. He glanced to his left and he mentally said a few words of thanks as he found Krista safe and unharmed, well bound to chair like he with a gag in her mouth, but she looked unharmed.

            A loud crack filled the expanse of the room as a meaty hand connected with his jaw, his head whipped to the side as he could hear Krista’s muffled scream, another fist connected with his stomach and he groaned, coughing in pain as his head fell against his chest. Blow after blow landed against his body; his chest, his abdomen, his stomach, his face. His spit blood out of his mouth as a voice somewhere in the distance called the assault to an end. Eren winced in pain as he shifted in the seat, he was certain that a few of his ribs were broken and he knew that the bruises from this assault were going to be particularly nasty looking.

            A pair of finely tailored dress shoes came into his field of vision; he winced in pain as a fist gripped a bunch of his hair and forced his head back; forcing him to stare into the eyes of a rather short, slightly overweight man, he wore a finely tailored suit and had a Rolex watch on his right hand, a thin black mustache graced his upper lip. There was something familiar about his face, like Eren had seen him before. Recognition refused to come to his mind as Eren was left in a hazy field.

            The short man reached out towards Eren and gripped his chin, studying him for a few terse seconds with his beady eyes. There seemed to be almost a fatherly look in them that danced alongside the desperate, crazed look that made them shine. Eren winced as the man’s other hand settled itself onto his shoulder, his thumb pressing hard against a rather nasty bruise there. “There’s some questions that I need to ask you-” his thumb pressed deeply against the bruise, lights began to dance in Eren’s eyes. “-question regarding your father.” His thumb pressed against the wound so hard that Eren screamed, before his vision faded to black and he succumbed to the sweet motherly embrace of the darkness.

**July 30 th**

            _“What are you doing here?”_ The cold metal barrel of the gun was pressed against the back of her head.

            _“Aren’t you overreacting a little?”_ She lowered the binoculars away from her eyes, _“besides where’s the blonde one who’s always glued to your hip?”_ She brought the binoculars back up to her eyes as silence filled the interior of the car. _“So are you here for business or pleasure?”_ The silence in the car seemed to stretch and stretch, until Ymir broke it with a sigh. _“Fine, if you don’t want to talk to me then I’ll just sit here and observe my prey.”_ She could hear the cocking of the gun, she _tsked_ , _“don’t they teach you to make sure your weapons are cocked before you point it at someone’s head?”_

            _“He’s here you know.”_ Ymir pulled the binoculars away from her face and whipped her head so that she was staring directly at Bertolt, his face was smooth and calm as running water.

            _“You tell me that now after sitting in my car and holding a gun to my head for nearly half an hour?”_

            _“So you didn’t know? I thought you would’ve considering Krista’s your charge or should I even be using that name?”_

            Bertolt barely blinked, before his hand shot out into the space in front of him; his hand gripping Ymir’s wrist tightly as her fingers turned bone white from her death grip on the large hunting knife she gripped firmly in her hands. The blade was pointed at Bertolt’s neck and nearly an inch away from his ceratoid artery. His grip tightened on her wrist as the muscle in her jaw ticked from anger. A short, yet rapid knock on the exterior of the car window, pulled the two out of the tension filled situation that existed in the car. Bertolt pulled the gun away from Ymir’s head and motioned with the barrel of it that she was to get out of the car. He opened the car door and stepped out into the scorching heat and burning rays of the sun. He could hear the driver’s side door open as Ymir too stepped out of the car.

            Annie’s eyes flickered from staring at Bertolt to taking a quick glance at Ymir before settling back on the tall teen. Bertolt gave her a look over, noting her disheveled appearance at the slashes in her clothing and her skinned and bloodied knuckles and the dark, sunken circles beneath her eyes. He noticed the bit of blood on the sleeve of her thin jacket. “It’s not mine,” was her only response and he was certain it was the only one he would be getting out of her.

            “So the other blondie has finally made her appearance,” Ymir’s tongue was quick and lashed out the searing words as quick as a whip. “I was beginning to wonder when we would meet again.”

            Annie ignored her words and continued on, “I lost them. There were more than I expected and some of them were heavy hitters. I think it’s time to move onto the next stage of the plan.”

            Bertolt simply shook his head, “we’re not doing that, not until all the pieces have fallen into place. Besides Eren isn’t ready for that yet. Not until he learns the truth.”

            A scowl contorted the blonde girl’s lips and the weariness that had dug itself into her face became more pronounced.

            A loud peal of laughter ripped through the sky. Bertolt and Annie both glared at Ymir, who wiped away tears from her eyes. “Just what exactly is that man planning?” She hiccupped out through peals of laughter. She shook her head, her brows crunching together as she spat out, “or maybe I wouldn’t rather know.” She gave them both a two fingered wave as she hopped back into the driver’s seat. The car engine roared to life and Bertolt and Annie watched as the black Prius peeled away from the curb and roared down the street until it was out of sight. Bertolt felt a pinch on his skin, he looked over his shoulder to see Annie gazing across the street to where Krista donning a pale blue summer dress and satin shawl slowly walked up the street towards Eren’s home.

            Bertolt silently nodded as he dragged his tongue against the roof of his mouth, suddenly finding it terribly dry and an awful pit existing in his very being. He could feel Annie pinching his wrist to grab his attention and knew that behind the wintry façade she exuded, it was slowly cracking and was experiencing that same gut wrenching feeling that he was experiencing as well. Something felt wrong and vile in a way that he had never experienced before; he watched as the front door to Eren’s home opened as Krista climbed the steps. “We need to go.” He barely registered that the whisper had come from his own mouth, until he found himself repeating the firm instructions again. “Annie, we need to go.” He turned on his heel and pulled Annie along with him as the two disappeared into the maze of the city.

 

            Eren scratched the back of his neck, before throwing his pen down. It rolled across the page and then rolled backwards into the spine of the book, he sighed as his head fell forward into his hands; his hair now slightly longer was barely caressing his cheeks. _“Remind me as to why we have summer homework again?”_

            Krista let out a soft titter of laughter, setting her own book down on the coffee table. Her eyes quickly darted to her cellphone which she had left on the coffee table, it buzzed and vibrated; skittering across the glass of the coffee table with each vibration it emitted. Her face rapidly paled in color as she glanced at the caller ID. _“Eren, where’s your bathroom?”_ Her voice was no more than a whisper laced with dread and fear.

            Eren lifted his face from his hands, just enough to narrow his eyes at her abrupt and strange behavior, he pointed upwards. _“Upstairs; it’s the first door on your right.”_ Krista nodded, grabbing her phone from off of the table and rushing out of the living room. Eren stood up as heard the pounding of footsteps on the floorboards and the distinct creak of the bathroom door, making his way to the kitchen and headed towards the fridge. He ignored the yellow sticky note, his father had plastered onto the freezer handle before he had left earlier in the day to whomever knows where. Their relationship as father and son had slowly begun to deteriorate since the day Eren had bid his friends’ farewell before their trip to Germany. They had become like two koi fish in a pond; existing in the same place, but constantly dancing around one another never to acknowledge that the other existed. Eren had become used to seeing the pain etched on his father’s face for the past month when Eren had come to ignore him completely. It hurt, it did. It was his father whom he had known for all of his life, but there was too many flaws of his to ignore. The surveillance, this constant secrecy in which Eren had sought to prod the answer’s from his father’s lips, but had been met with nothing but silence. It had begun to wear on him and had caused him to lose a decorum of trust in the only parent he had ever known. Eren opened the fridge door and reached inside, he grabbed a bottle of water and unscrewed the lid, taking a swig of the cold liquid. He stopped, his eyebrows rising as he heard the snapping of a twig branch through the open kitchen window, he pulled the bottle away from his lips, capped it and walked towards the kitchen sink, placing his bottle on the counter. He stared out of the window and into the backyard, his eyes narrowed as he took in the vibrant green of the grass and the leaves bristling in the trees, there was nothing out of the normal, he shrugged to himself and turned away from the window, grabbing his bottle of water, he walked back into the living room and was surprised to see Krista sitting on the couch. Her eyes staring at nothing and her skin paler than white linen sheets.

            Eren walked up behind her, reached out towards her and placed a hand on her shoulder. She jumped in fright, her soul nearly bursting through her skin as she whipper her head around so fast that Eren himself took a step back away from her. Relief flooded into her eyes as she realized that only she and Eren were in the room. _“Krista? Are you alright?”_ Krista stared at him for a few moments, her eyes still glazed over with that look of someone who knew the secrets to life itself, but refused to share.

            Her lips jerked into a smile, one that was obviously forced and forged with years of practice. _“I’m fine—perfectly fine._ ” Without so much as another word, she stretched her arm outwards and reached out towards her book she had set down on the coffee table. Eren slowly moved away from her, turning so that he could take his seat next to her. Everything seemed to just slow down then. The slow turn of his head as the sound of shattered glass filled the room; the fluttering of the living room curtains as a slim, black, cylindrical object sailed through the air, shards of broken glass came tumbling down littering the sofa and wooden floor. Eren watched as Krista’s mouth slowly widened as fear carved itself into her eyes, a high pitched scream erupted from her throat as the cylindrical object clattered onto the coffee table emitting a high pitched wine of its own.

            Eren’s scream intertwined with Krista’s; his water bottle fell to the floor with a thud dull, the water splashed in the air for a few moments before the plastic bottle turned on its side and the water began to flow out and soak into the hardwood floor. Eren and Krista clapped their hands against their ears, pressing the palms of their hands tightly against their ears in an effort to block out the high pitched sound. Eren glanced over at Krista; and suddenly the world disappeared.

 

            _“Levi…what did you do?”_ Hanji’s voice came out in an alarmed whisper, as the car came to a rolling stop; the dozens of police lights flashed on and off, lighting up the entire neighborhood in a sea of blue and red. Cops littered the lawn of the Ackerman home and a mill of neighbors and concerned yet inquisitive citizens stood behind the yellow police tape that covered each inch of wrought iron fence.

            Levi flipped the hazard light button on in his car. He unlocked the car doors and stormed out in the street in front of his home, before Hanji or Erwin could say anything to pull him back into the car. Levi’s heart was beating in his chest as his eyes traversed from the cops combing his lawn to the blown out living room window to the front door that was kicked in and hanging onto the door frame by a single hinge. Levi’s feet were moving faster than his brain, he heard the opening and shutting of the car door’s behind him, but paid little heed to it.

            His hand was extended outwards, his fingers wrapped around the iron of the fence, when a cop rushed towards him; hands held up and his face exasperated as if this was the umpteenth citizen of the evening that he was going to have to tell of for getting too close to the crime scene. _”Monsieur, please step away from the fence. This is an ongoing crime scene.”_

            Levi’s gaze was scorching as he glared down the cop, _“This crime scene happens to be my home.”_ Levi tore down the police tape, pushing open the fence and stormed past the police officer who now wore a look of surprise on his face.

            In his long history of doing what he did; leaving behind bodies riddled with bullet holes or the open necks exposed to the sky, blood splashed across the walls and coating the carpet like a gothic painting. Levi had seen and created many a nightmarish scenes that seemed as if they been plucked from the brutish sections of a holy scripture. Nothing could have prepared him for what he stumbled upon in his own home.

            He had barely crossed over the threshold to his own home, when the metallic, acrid scent of blood struck his nose. The dozens of police officers combing through his home barely paid him any attention as his feet carried him to the living room. His heart pounded in his chest as overturned furniture was the first thing to greet him. The sofas were flipped over and the cushions strewn everywhere; there was a puddle of water on the floor and two textbooks were on opposite sides of the room, pages splayed out like an angel’s wings who had been pulled until they were at full length. And then he saw it, the small droplets of blood next to the smashed glass of the coffee table.

            He could hear a pair of footsteps from behind him that came short at the entrance of the living room. There was a measure of inhaled breath, soft enough that he could barely hear it.

            _“What happened here?”_ Erwin’s ocean blue eyes scanned the room, noting everything that his eyes touched.

            _“Which one of you happens to be the owner of this home?”_ The trio turned as an older _inspecteur_ , his face lined and harden by his years spent on the force; a thick mustache rested on his upper lip.

            Levi turned on his heel and stared directly in the man’s face. His mind burning through a thousand things that were happening right now; the police that were combing through his house and the secrets that were hidden in the cobwebs. The small droplets of blood on the floor that were undoubtedly being collected and categorized as evidence to be tested at a later date. Fear. Could they connect it to Yeager’s DNA? Fear. The DNA samples that were undoubtedly being collected now; the strands of hair, the toothbrush, dead skin. Thousands of tests being run, thousands of tests that uncovered the dirty secrets he had kept taped to his tongue, burned and buried deep within, so deep that he no longer remembered the hazy line that separated the lies from the truth. Fear. And then the gentle touch of warm skin against clothed one.

            Levi glanced at Erwin out of the corner of his eyes. Erwin’s hand rested against his shoulder blade. His look calm and forceful as he silently with the strength of his eyes told Levi to calm himself.

            He breathed slowly. Counting in a rhythmic manner in his head as he willed his body to come under control. _“I’m the owner.”_

            The _inspecteur_ nodded _, “it might be better if we do this at the station. The, ah, environment here must not be suitable.”_ He nodded his head towards what remained of the front door and the heels of his boot tapped against the wooden floor, before stopping once realizing that he was not being followed.

            _“Monsieur. I’d rather do this in my own home.”_ Levi stood his ground and inclined his head towards the kitchen which had the least amount of traffic.

            The _inspecteur_ gazed at him with an air or reluctancy, but he was not one to deny such a request. He simply nodded and Levi led the way.

 

**August X**

            The acrid smell of burnt hair seemed the fill the entirety of the large space. The squeaking of rats and scurrying of other small creatures could be heard behind him. His wrists burned as the rough fibers of the ropes cut into his skin from knots tied to tightly with immature hands, thin strings of blood dripped from his wrist and fell to the floor; staining the grey concrete beneath him red with his blood.

            His body buzzed with the energy of the caffeine his captors had forcefully poured down his throat.

            _“Eren.”_ Eren forced his swollen eyes open at the sound of Krista’s voice. Her face was marred by dry rivers that painted her cheeks, her eyes were puffy from crying and her voice was cracked from dehydration.

            Eren’s lips pulled into a grin, his skin tightened as pain gripped him in a tight hold. _“I’m okay,”_ It even hurt for him to speak as he cracked lips rubbed against one another, his mouth was dry and even uttering a single word made him feel like he had swallowed a bag of sand. _“Were are they?”_

            Krista shook her head. _“I don’t know. They left after you passed out…Eren what do they want?”_ he could almost hear the threatening sounds of a sob as his name left her lips.

            Eren shook his head; he winced, and forced himself to swallow as bile rose in his throat. _“I don’t know, but we need to get out of here.”_ Eren forced himself to lift his head up, and surveyed where he and Krista had been held captive since—oh god. How long had it been since both of them had been kidnapped from his own home? His body seemed to burn with phantom pain as he remembered the sudden flurry of emotion of that day.

            _There was the sudden burning in his throat and the searing pain in his eyes that made them water. He could barely see in front of him or much less anything in the room at all through the smoke and tears. He shuffled forward and cursed aloud as his knee collided into the corner of the coffee table. Krista’s screams filled the room as black shadowy figures seemed to swirl in the cloud of smoke._

_“Krista!” He called out in chocking gasps as he stumbled in the smoke. He grabbed the hem of his t-shirt and pressed it against his lips. “Krista!” He called out again, her screaming the only sound in the room suddenly came to a halt. His senses were working overtime as the lessons his father had taught him over the years started to kick in. He quickly dropped to the floor and swung his right leg; it caught against something sturdy and Eren could feel the floor vibrate as a body hit the floor._

_Gloved hands wrapped themselves around Eren’s chest. The scent of leather filled his nose as the smooth material of the gloves was pressed against his mouth to keep him from screaming. He needed to be calm, right now wasn’t the time for him to freak out. He needed to form a plan, one that would hopefully get him and Krista out of this situation alive. Based on his height and the placement of his captor’s arms, the two were no more than a few centimeter’s apart in height. He thanked all the saints that his legs were free and swung his leg forward, making sure the heel was aimed for the kneecaps and swung it backwards. The arms around him loosened, but his captor wasn’t fazed for long. Eren had counted on that. His mouth opened wide and his teeth sunk into cotton covered flesh. He bit down hard until he could taste blood on his tongue. The captor ripped his arm away from Eren’s mouth and punched him in the face._

_Eren could feel the meaty fist connect with his right eye, his teeth clattered in his skull as he was disoriented for a few seconds. He could taste fresh blood on his tongue and he wondered who’s it was. The gloved hand was back again; covering his nose and mouth; cutting off his supply of oxygen. It was a basic maneuver, his hand shot up and gripped tightly at his captors arm, his nails digging into the bite wound he made. The smoke was starting to clear from the room as the edges of his vision started to become fuzzy and turn to black. He could make out the distinct sound of multiple pairs of feet in the room, the black balaclavas covering their faces. Besides the sounds of movement he could hear someone making brisk commands, he felt his body lurch as he was thrown over someone’s shoulder. It was getting hard for him to think as his brain melted to putty from the lack of oxygen to his cells. He needed to do something, leave a clue behind. He pressed his feet together, desperately attempting to kick off one of his shoes. As he was being carried out of his own home, he heard a satisfying thunk before slipping into the darkness._

            Time. Time didn’t seem to exist wherever they were being kept. Days and nights blurred into one another. The two of them—he and Krista—were kept in total darkness unless their captors came to visit them or the smartly dressed man. Sunlight or moonlight for that matter barely filtered into the dingy warehouse room. The windows covered in years of filth and grime blocked the strong rays, distorting them until only a thin sliver of light caressed the walls. Eren had taken up to keeping track of time through the light that made it into the building. He had gotten to three days of sunshine and moonlight, before the days soon melded into cloudy skies and rain.

            The few times Eren wasn’t being tortured or passed out, he could see a glint of almost recognition; a glint of familiarity pass in Krista’s eyes. They had an intimate relationship. One that Eren didn’t know the intricacies of. The way they held themselves in each other’s presence; the tenderness in which the man regarded Krista, almost seemed to care for her in a familial way. Eren’s thoughts were churning out faster than he could sort through them. The fingers of blame soon started to turn and point to Krista as he came to the summarization that the mess they were in all stemmed from her. The shutter to the warehouse started to rise, brining with the damp almost moldy smell of the rain from outside; fat droplets and a brisk gust of cold wind blew inside. Eren shivered in the thin t-shirt and jeans that he was still wearing. The beady-eyed man was with the two captors that came every day. He carried with him, a large white paper bag. The bottom was sodden with grease and Eren and Krista’s mouth watered as their stomach rumbled with hunger. It had been a long time since either of them last ate.

            “You two must be hungry.” The man walked into the room, his eyes gleaming as if he had brought food for two guests at a soiree and not two teens that he was holding captive. Eren’s stomach rumbled loudly, cutting his thoughts into two.

            The man reached into the white, greasy bag and pulled out a wrapped burger. From the markings on the paper, Eren couldn’t tell what fast food store the man had bought it from. But he didn’t really care about that, not when his stomach was tearing itself apart. He nearly moaned aloud as he watched the man delicately unwrap the wrapper around the burger and reveal the toasted bun, the three patties dripping in its own juices, the bacon weeping with fat and the cheese melted to the bun in a harmonic symphony that would reduce Tsaichovsky to tears. The man seemed to smile sadistically then as he waved the burger in the air, taunting the two teens before taking a large bite. Ketchup burst from the titan’s side as blood would from flesh, he chewed slowly, deliberately. A gleam in his eyes as if he could almost hear the silent screams from the two teens who were dying from even a small morsel of food. He held up the bag and the two captors who had been standing on either side of him moved forward, pulling large hunting knives from the side of their belts.

            Eren even in his weakened state was gearing up for a fight as Krista’s eyes went wide at the sight of the knives. He almost laughed— _almost_ —when he found his wrists fear from the awfully tight ropes that once bound his wrists. He rubbed his wrists, now red and scabbed over from the rope burns. He panicked when he felt the barrel of a gun pressed against his temple, he could feel Krista do the same.

            “Don’t worry. I’m not going to hurt either of you.” The man waved his wrist and a chair was brought forth. He sat down in it. “I just want to talk. Get some of my questions answered and then maybe—” he held up the bag “—we can reach an agreement of some sorts.”

            “I’d rather die.” Eren swiveled his head at Krista’s outburst; her face was contorted into a feral snarl, her eyes just seemed to exude years of hate.

            The man’s eyes softened with a false sense of familial warmth. “Krista. Sweetheart. Don’t be this way, I’m doing this because it’s the best for both of us. I’m taking both of our interests at heart here.”

            “So killing my mother was in my best interest?" Her voice dripped with malice that was unbecoming of the girl he had known for several months.

            The man’s face turned darkened in color at her words. “Your mother’s death was unfortunate. It wasn’t meant to turn out that way. Your life was never meant to turn out that way. Our lives were never meant to turn out this way!” In anger he tossed the greasy bag onto the floor and brought his foot down on its contents. He turned his head and glared at Eren. His beady eyes burning with such an intense hatred that Eren could almost feel his skin alit with flames. “It’s all that cursed families fault!” Spittle flew from his lips, he suddenly seemed to remember himself and dabbed at his spit coated lips with his tie. He smoothed back his hair with his hand and chuckled, regaining a little of the composure he had lost earlier.

            He nodded his head in Eren’s direction. “I have a few questions to ask you.” Eren could hear the trigger of the gun being cocked, a few strands of his hair parted as the gun was pressed closer to his temple. “Tell me what you know about Kenny the Ripper?”

            Eren scowled. His eyes darted between the gun pressed to his head and the man asking him questions. His heart was pounding in his chest as he wavered on what to do. The captor pointing the gun at his head, aimed it at the floor and pulled the trigger. Eren and Krista screamed as the sound of the gun being fired filled the room. The man almost seemed to smile apologetically. “My friends and I aren’t very patient creatures. So let me ask you again. What do you know about Kenny the Ripper?”

            Eren could feel the muzzle of the gun press against his temple again. His heart was hammering so fast in his chest that he was concerned a heart attack would kill him first before his captors even so much as had time to put a bullet in his head. “I don’t know anything,” he replied in accented English. The cold steel of the barrel of the gun was a surprise to him as his head whipped to the side from the force of the blow. He could hear Krista sobbing as the blow to his face came again.

            “Let’s not lie to each other here. What do you know about Kenny the Ripper?”

            “I don’t know anything!” Eren grunted as a meaty fist planted itself into his stomach.

            The man moved from his chair, his face red with fury, he walked over to Eren and gripped him by the hair. He tugged Eren’s head back so that they were staring into each other’s eyes. The anger melted away from the man’s face and morphed into a bemused expression, he released his grip on Eren’s hair and began to laugh. “Tell me son, what do you know about your father?”

            Eren was thoroughly confused by the sudden change in question. He could feel something digging into and scratching along his skin. “He’s a respectable man who works in the IT industry.”

            That didn’t seem to be the answer to the question that he wanted. The man burst out laughing, his belly jiggling as his laughter boomed in the spacious area. “I’m not asking you about that man.” The laughter on his face seemed to twist into a malicious grin as he studied Eren’s face. “You don’t know do you? You don’t know that your father is Gri-”

            Eren’s eyes went wide as a scream ripped itself from Krista’s throat; louder than he had ever heard her scream before. He was shaking in his shoes as his face and dirty clothing were covered in blood, brain tissue and bits of bone. He glanced down at the body of the beady-eyed man; blood pooled beneath his head, the large bullet wound on the side of his head wept blood that matted his hair to his head. The two captors were hardly fazed by their boss who now lay dead on the floor. They pointed their guns at the open steel shutter and stalked slowly towards it as a small black canister skipped across the cement flooring before rolling in-between them. A ploom of smoke hissed from within the canister; quickly covering the room in a thick fog.

            Eren’s eyes watered as two separate shots were fired from a gun; he could hear the distinct sound of bodies crumpling to the floor and it worried him how easy it was becoming for him to make out such a distinct sound.

            The thick miasma of smoke soon cleared as the wind sucked it outside. His heart was pounding in his chest to see who had come to his and Krista’s recue or their demise. His heart skipped a beat as his lips thinned out and his brows pressed together in the epitome of confusion. _“Papa?”_

            His father smiled at him, as if the very scene he found himself in was the least bit confusing to him. As if the heavy pistol in his hand was merely a child’s toy he had grown up with and spent his better years utilizing everyday as if the carnage he found himself in the middle of was merely a second home to him. His black boots squelched in fresh blood as he stepped over the still warm corpse of the beady-eyed man; he tucked the pistol into the back of his waist band and gripped Eren’s dirty and bruised face in-between his hands. He stroked Eren’s cheek with his thumb as Eren seemed to still from all the shock.

_“Papa? What are you—how are you even here?”_

            Levi shook his head as he continued to stroke Eren’s cheek with his thumb, he reached behind him as he rubbed a speck of dirt away from Eren’s cheek. _“Don’t worry. Everything is going to be okay.”_

_“What are you?”_ Eren’s eyes went wide as the needle sunk into the vein on his neck; Levi pressed down on the plunger; the viscous liquid, almost the color of milk disappeared into Eren’s body, until every single drop was gone from the needle. His pupils dilated for a fraction of a second as his eyelids slid closed and his entire body went limp like a sack of potatoes.

            “What are you doing to him!?” Krista screamed at Levi as she watched Eren’s chest rise and fall. Levi seemed to finally acknowledge that there was another person in the room as well. He dropped the needle on the floor and pulled the gun from his waist band. He aimed the gun at her head.

            “Give me a reason to not kill you right now.” His voice was cold and deadly, like a poisonous snake that slid amongst the tall stalks of grass prepared to strike.

            Krista’s eyes darted from between the barrel of the gun, to Eren, and then to Levi. Her words were caught in her throat, trapped behind a layer of fear.

            “Because if you shoot, then I shoot.” All eyes turned on Ymir as she pointed the gun in her hand at Levi’s chest. From the looks of it, it was a Desert Eagle .50. The girl was smart. Ymir kept her eyes trained on Levi. “Krista are you alright?”

            Krista nodded, “yes. I’m fine. But, I don’t know what’s wrong with Eren.”

            Ymir’s eyes briefly flickered on Eren. She noted the empty needle on the floor. “What did you give him?”

            “Is that really any of your concern?”

            “It is, if it puts my charges life in danger.”

            Levi spun the gun in his hand and tucked it back into his waistband as he stooped down and undid the rope bounding Eren’s ankles together. He tossed Eren over his shoulder in a fireman carry. Ymir trained her gun on him as he walked towards the open steel shutter; they stared each other down. Two opposing animals in a forest, ready to pounce on each other the moment the other decided to make the first move.

            Levi continued walking until the cold rain pelted against his skin and his disappeared into the pitch black.

            Ymir released the breath she hadn’t even realized she’d been holding in. Her arms were shaking as she lowered the gun in her hands and tucked it into the holster she had strapped onto her side. She had never felt such an intense fear in her entire life, as she quickly moved towards Krista to free her from her bonds she realized one thing that she had never realized about Levi before.

            He was dangerous.

**4 days later; August 9 th**

            His head was pounding like a thousand drums were being beaten upon in his brain. His mouth was awfully dry as he slowly opened his eyes; he squinted at the brightness of the light in his bedroom…his bedroom. He sat up in bed and quickly came to regret it; his breathing was shallow and shaky as it felt like an elephant had rammed its head into his chest. His entire body hurt and felt sore from his head to his toes. He looked around his room as elation rushed through his blood at being in his room once more. He wondered why he felt this way when he had never left his room in the first place.

            He slowly placed his feet on the floor and frowned as he noticed splotches of green and black bruises along his arms and red marks around his wrist that looked faintly like rope burns. There were multiple small little puncture wounds in the crook of his elbow that felt tender to his touch. He glanced down at his legs, hiking up the legs of his shorts he saw the some multicolored splotches that dotted his arms. What the hell happened to him?

            He shot up from his bed and made his way to the bathroom; flipping the light on, he was taken aback by the bruises that coated his face. The area around his right eye was swollen and a dark shade of green. He lifted up his shirt and was hardly surprised to see the same pattern of bruising on his abdomen and chest. His head seemed to pound even harder than it did know when the phantom image of a beady pair of eyes; lifeless and staring at him just seemed to suddenly flash in his brain. He pressed a hand to his head as he stumbled backwards. The back of his knees bumping into the edge of the tub. He took a shaky breath as beads of sweat dripped down the back of his neck, his body shivered as his stomach seemed to twist into knots. He rushed towards the toilet and threw open the lid as the contents of his stomach emptied into the porcelain bowl. His fingers gripped tightly on the toilet as he his stomach attempted to empty itself of things that were no longer in it.

            _“Eren. You’re up!”_ Eren turned his head at the sound of Hanji’s voice. Her usual energy filled smile was on plastered onto her face. She continued to talk as she walked into the bathroom and sat down on the edge of the tub. _“We were so worried about you, especially when you didn’t wake up after the third day-”_

            Eren zoned out of the conversation as Hanji continued to babble on; quickly jumping from one topic to the next. He had been asleep for 3 days? He glanced down at the bruises on his arms. What had happened to him so badly that he had ended up in this state? He felt a hand slip around his arm, he glanced at Hanji.

            _“Come on. We have to get something in that stomach of yours.”_ He allowed himself to be lead downstairs where the smell of spices and freshly brewed coffee was the first thing to hit his nose. He stiffened as he felt wetness on his cheeks. He brought his hand up to his face and rubbed at his cheeks. He was crying.

            _“Hanji! I swear how long does it take for you to take a shit-”_ Levi _oomphed_ as Eren launched his full weight at him; wrapping his father into a tight hug. His body shook as he sobbed into his father’s shoulder.

            Levi’s brows raised in surprise, he glanced at Hanji who simply shrugged her shoulders in response. Feeling Eren’s tears soak into and dampen the shoulder of his shirt, he wrapped his arms around his son as Eren seemed to cry even harder than before.

 

            There was a knock at the front door as Eren swallowed down the last dregs of his tea after his small breakfast of eggs and toast. His father walked to the front door as Erwin and Hanji made him laugh with one of their jokes.

            _“Eren. There are friends here for you.”_ His father called out to him. He got up from his seat, taking his father to mean that Armin and Mikasa were here to see him after returning home from their trip abroad. However, his surprise must have shown on his face.

            _“Guess we aren’t the ones you want to see right now.”_ Ymir shot Krista a pointed look as the blonde elbowed her in her ribs.

            Eren shook his head, _“no. I’m sorry. I was just a little shocked that you guys would be here.”_ He turned his gaze towards Krista. _“Are you alright?”_

            Krista seemed to be taken back by the question and albeit confused as Eren continued.

            _“I still can’t believe we were kidnapped. I’m just glad the police found us when they did.”_

            Krista could feel a burning sensation on her skin, she glanced at Levi who seemed to be staring into the distance. But even words sometimes never had to be communicated; the silence could say a lot. _“Ah—yes I’m fine, but I’m not here because of that.”_ She pointed towards the living room. _“Do you mind?”_ He shook his head and led the way into the living room.

            Everyone soon found themselves taking a seat in the living room. Krista uttered her thanks as Hanji placed a steaming cup of tea in front of her. She brought the cup to her lips before taking a sip and placing the cup back down again. _“I haven’t exactly been…truthful to say the least.”_ Her gaze focused on Eren _, “with you and our classmates mostly…and well with myself.”_ She took a deep breath before continuing. _“My real name is Historia Reiss.”_

            _“Reiss? As in that dead guy they found in a warehouse in Britain?”_

            Historia nodded, _“Yes. That was my…father.”_

_“What are you doing here? I mean in France.”_

_“I can explain all of that.”_ And so she did.

**August 10 th**

            _“I can’t believe it.”_ Jean bemoaned as he bit down on the popsicle between his fingers. _“Historia is royalty. And Eren here,”_ Jean slapped him between the shoulder blades _, “got himself kidnapped while we were away. Can’t say your month away from me wasn’t too eventful Ackerman.”_

            _“I think I’m actually missing the time I was kidnapped.”_ Eren replied, earning him a bit of laughter from his friends.

            He and his friends were hanging out in a local park deciding that the larger majority of the group needed to unwind from the trip to Germany and Eren desperately needed to hang out with his friends again.

            _“I couldn’t believe the news!”_ Sasha cried aloud as she shoved another chip into her mouth. _“It was enough that you and Historia got kidnapped and rescued by the police, but I can’t believe the kidnappers died in that shootout on the bridge.”_

            Eren had hardly been able to believe the facts himself when his family had filled him in on the details of what had happened to him. Abducted from the living room of his own home after a botched robbery gone wrong. His kidnappers had come to the conclusion that they couldn’t leave any witnesses behind, but that he and Historia might fetch them a hefty ransom instead in lieu of any money they were hoping to steal or pawn off through items they would have stolen.

            The police had later found Historia and him in a dingy abandoned apartment, bruised and beaten by their kidnappers who later led police on a car chase across the city, ending up in a shootout on the bridge. All of their kidnappers had died as a result of their bullet wounds. It was also later explained to him as well that the small needle like wounds in the juncture of his elbow where a result of the kidnappers injecting a cocktail of drugs into his body. There had been trace amounts of barbiturates in both his and Historia’s system, mostly pentobarbital. The captors had thankfully kept them both knocked out for a large portion of the time they had been with them.

            Eren suddenly blinked, pressing the palm of his hand to his eye as the faint and distant memory of a bright and swinging light above him hit his brain like a steaming locomotive.

            _“Eren?”_ The soft touch on his shoulder had a calming effect on him as he turned his head to see the alarmed faces of his friends.

            _“Maybe it was a bad idea for you to be outside like this.”_ Armin voiced his own concern.

            Eren shook his head, he knew that his face was pale. _“Non, non. It’s fine. I’m fine really. It’s just hotter than I expected today is all.”_ He knew that his words did little to ease the concerns of his friends. _“Come on, let’s find some shade. I’m dying here.”_

           

            Levi leaned against the railing lining the bridge. The fresh smell of the river beneath him caressed his nose and mingled with the ever constant smell of fresh baking bread that never seemed to disperse from the city and reminded him of his youth growing up in the city. The cool wind coming from the north ruffled his hair; the tips caressed his skin. He decided he needed to touch it up when he got home, it was getting a little too long for his tastes. He barely glanced as the man came up to him and leaned against the railing next to him.

            _“Le passé sera toujours nous hanter.”_ The past will always haunt us.

            “Are you saying that something from your past has recently caught up with you?” Levi simply continued to stare out into the open expanse of the river as he responded.

            “Not from my past, but yours or better yet—Kenny the Ripper’s.”

            Kenny chuckled, “haven’t heard that name in a while.”

            “Well it seems that a mutual friend of ours seems to know that name very well.” Levi bit back, before reaching into his jeans pocket to produce a carton of cigarettes. He pulled a slim cigarette out and placed it between his lips before shoving the carton back into his jean’s pocket and retrieving his lighter to light his cigarette.

            He glared at his father who took the lit cigarette from his mouth. “You should quit; it’s not good for your health.”

            Levi rolled his eyes as he plucked the cigarette from between his father’s fingers and stuck it back into his mouth; he took a drag of his cigarette, puffing the smoke out through his nose. The smoky ringlets hung in the sky for a few terse seconds as they floated upwards and dispersed into the air.

            “We have a lot of friends in common son and none mention that name as lightly as this friend seemed to do. Mind telling me who it was?”

            “Rod Reiss.” Levi had never seen such a complete and utter look of disturbed shock on his face. Kenny scowled, before looking down into the cool depths of the river as he seemed to rack his mind for some point in time in which he and Reiss had crossed paths before in some point in time. The realization soon hit him; Levi could tell from the way the muscles in his back seemed to tighten.

            “Almost 2 years ago; there were 15 of us. All hired; we didn’t ask for each other’s name or any other personal information along those lines; neither of us cared and we were there to do a job. We got called out to assassinate two women; a mother and a daughter. There was a large price on both of their heads. You should’ve seen the amount of money they were offering for the hit. It was enough that I could spend my years on an island somewhere, drinking mojitos under the sun and with a few beauties at my side.” Levi snorted as the end of his cigarette burned to ash, fell off and crumbled, falling into the river below. “We showed up to the house; somewhere in the countryside of some obscure English town. We got word Reiss had hid his mistress there, stuffed her in some posh house with her folks and the kid. We showed up in the dead of the night, barely even had our foot on the lawn before Reiss burst out of the house like a dog that got a sniff of something juicy.”

            “What happened?” Levi asked as he tossed his cigarette, at this point nothing but ash, down onto the cobblestones of the bridge. He crushed it underneath the soles of his shoe and pulled out another cigarette and began to smoke it as he waited for his father to continue on with the tale.

            “What do you think happened?” Kenny snorted derisively, “Reiss and his mistress squealed, he gave her up and just watched as we slit her throat and the mistress—” He snorted again, “—before we even slit her throat. She acted like she didn’t know either of the two, gave up her own daughter as a Reiss in order to save her own skin. You didn’t want to hear the things she said to that girl before she was dead. Mother of the year award goes to her I guess.” Levi’s own thoughts momentarily turned towards his son. “We were about to get rid of the girl too when Reiss suddenly stepped in. Offered us all a bunch of money, twice the amount we were getting paid if the girl just disappeared off the face of the Earth; take on a new name and just disappear from England before the sun even rose. We all agreed. Damn, never thought Reiss would have the balls to do what he did. All just for cleaning up the mess someone paid us to do.”

            “I don’t think that was quite it.” Levi stared up at the sky, watching the smoke from his cigarette drift higher and higher until it seemed to just fade from existence. There was something more to this story, something much deeper than simply seeking revenge against an assassin’s family.

            “What about Eren? Did he manage to tell you anything Reiss might have said to him?” Levi simply said nothing, just continued to smoke his cigarette.

_“Are you sure this will work?”_ _He stood with his arms crossed as he watched Hanji roll out the thin mat on the bed she had carried with her._

_Eren’s chest rose and fell in his drug induced slumber as Hanji pulled out a large needle from the mat. “It will. I’ve never been proven wrong before.” The needle contained an almost iridescent blue liquid that shimmered under the dull light of the bedside lamp. She gripped Eren’s arm and pressed the tip of the needle into the crook of his elbow, she pressed down on the stopper and slowly watched as the liquid disappeared into Eren’s arm._

_She pulled the needle out of him and replaced it back into the mat before pulling out a slim and small penlight. The young teen’s eyes snapped open as his skin broke out in a thin sheen of sweat. “Eren,” Hanji began as she sat down on the edge of the bed beside him, “I need you to tell me a few things…” She aimed the bright light into his eyes. His pupils dilated. “…and then I’ll help you forget.”_

_Levi’s gaze turned to the dim glow of the lamp as the sound of rapid clicking became the only sound that filled the silence of the room._

            Levi pulled the slim cigarette from between his lips and dropped it onto the stones of the bridge. His foot came down upon it, crushing it with a crunch. He blew a thin stream of smoke from between his lips and turned and began to walk away from his father. “I always make sure to clean up my messes.” He called out as he disappeared into the slowly growing lunch crowd.

            Levi _always_ made sure to clean up his messes. Otherwise he would have to deal with the problems that arose later and one thing Levi didn’t like was cutting up some lose ends.

 

            _Levi’s wrenched open the car door to the black 4-door Mazda. The glacial British rain pounded against the asphalt and blew into the interior of the car, wetting the leather seats. Levi grunted as he dumped Eren’s unconscious body into the back seat and slammed the car door shut as he made his way to the passenger door, opened and climbed into the car, slamming the door shut after him. The rain splattered against the window as Erwin glanced up at the rearview mirror to get a glance at Eren’s body in the backseat._

_“What are we going to do about Historia?” Levi didn’t bother answering and Erwin took that as his signal to start driving the car. The wheels screeched as the car cut through the rain; heavy droplets splattered against the steel and iron vehicle. The ride was smooth and the car was all but silent, save for the soft sounds of breathing coming from Eren as the trio drove through backroads and barely lit roads until they reached a small plane runway run by one of Erwin’s many contacts._

_A small luxury jet was waiting on the runway as Erwin pulled up at the chain linked gate. They waited for what seemed to be a few minutes before the fence shuttered and parted on its own. Erwin pulled the car into the runway and parked near a small control tower. A dark skinned man came out of the control tower and began to walk towards the car. “Take Eren to the jet. I’ll be there in a few seconds.” Erwin said as he let the engine run as he climbed out of the car to talk to the man. Levi got out of the car and retrieved Eren from the backseat, before tossing him over his shoulder in a fireman carry._

_He could hear Erwin’s voice over the spattering of the rain. Whatever he was saying to the dark skinned man however didn’t catch Levi’s ears as he shuffled through the rain towards the jet. He climbed up the small flight of stairs and was suddenly in the brightly light and warm interior of the small jet._

_“Yo!” Hanji called out from her leather seat near one of the windows; a black duffel bag sat on the floor next to her. It was overstuffed and the zipper on top of it looked as if it threatened to break off of the bag and spill whatever it was that she had stuffed in there all over the floor of the jet. Levi walked over to the empty seat beside her and dumped Eren in it as she reached down towards the duffel bag, unzipped it and rifled through it until she retrieved a needle with the same viscous liquid Levi had injected into Eren’s body back at the warehouse. “When was the last injection?” She asked as she flicked her index finger against the needle._

_“Almost two hours ago.” Levi sighed as he plopped down in the leather seat facing the two. He watched as Hanji pressed the needle into his son’s arm and injected the liquid into his body yet again. Eren barely stirred from his drug induced slumber, the simple and labored rise and fall of his chest was the only indication that his son was alive. Levi studied Eren’s face; memorized every black and blue hue that tattered his skin, the large black eye on his face. Levi fingers curled inwards to his palms. The nails of his fingers pressed harshly into the soft flesh of his skin until half-moons were indented into them._

_Erwin finally clambered onboard and headed straight for the cockpit. The jet was soon in the air when Erwin returned and took the seat next to Levi. The jet dipped on its left wing and Levi looked out the window. There was a fire blazing below on the ground; thick black smoke curled into the sky and with its tendril fingers seemed as if for a few moments it would just skim the surface of the jet. He wondered what it felt like to be like that black smoke; always reaching, but never touching the object of your desire or else the fantasy you had constructed for yourself would be shattered by the very hammer of reality. He ruminate over that in his mind, until he was soon drifting off to sleep and no longer thinking of such things._

_It was an hour before the jet landed in a nondescript and abandoned warehouse facility nearly an hour and a half south of Paris. Levi watched from afar as Hanji administered her third injection of the night into Eren’s arm from the backseat of Erwin’s car._

_“Aren’t you concerned?” Erwin stood right beside him. The sky was beginning to lighten a bit as the first pink ray of sunlight streaked across the middle of the sky._

_Levi knew what Erwin was alluding at, but he had everything planned out and he was hesitant to answer. He had been worried and a nervous wreck ever since he had set foot on the jet; he just did a good job of hiding it. “I don’t have anything to be concerned about.”_

_Erwin and he didn’t say anything until Hanji stood up and waved at the two. This time Levi was the one to drive. The sun was just breaking above the horizon by the time they arrived into the city and parked in front of Levi’s home. “Get him inside for now; don’t let anyone see him.” Levi spoke his orders firmly as Erwin and Hanji both carried Eren into the house as quickly as they could so early in the morning. The city had slowly started to awaken so close to six in the morning. In a few hours his neighbors would take their dogs out for an early jog and the old lady across the street would be watering her garden in a few hours. Levi shut off the engine to the car and steadily made his way to the house. He stopped at the front door and glanced at it; a new door stood in place of the old one, but the doorframe itself still showed the scars were it had been kicked in. “Levi!” Hanji’s feet pounded on the stairs as she descended, she stopped on the first step when she noticed Levi standing just outside the open front door. “Come on. Time is of the essence here.”_

_“Relax four-eyes,” Levi quipped as he stepped over the threshold and closed the door behind him, before Hanji turned on the balls of her feet and started her ascent of the stairs with Levi behind her. Erwin was standing in Eren’s bedroom, the young teen was lying on his bed and Hanji’s duffle bag rested on the floor beside it._

_“I think it’s time for our date with the_ _inspecteur_ _.”The words were out of Erwin’s mouth as Hanji reached into the duffel bag and retrieved a slim mat that she placed on her lap as she squatted down beside the bed. She waved her hand in the air. “Go. Go enjoy your little date. I’ll be here.” She commented as she slipped out a needle from the mat. Levi nodded as he and Erwin made their way out of the room. It wouldn’t look good to keep the_ _inspecteur_ _waiting._

_The_ _inspecteur_ _; the man Levi first met in his yard when he had returned home to hell was sitting before him. His hands folded on top of his desk. Levi looked at the wall behind him and spotted a small picture frame on top of a filing cabinet. It contained a small picture of a rather beautiful woman whose arms were wrapped around two smiling teenagers; a boy and a girl. Levi placed down the metallic briefcase on top of the surface of the desk. A thick thud resounded from the metal colliding with the wood._

_“You can’t get me to do this.” The_ _inspecteur_ _stared at the two men in his office and then at the briefcase on his desk as Levi opened it; thick wads of cash rested in the interior inside._

_“This is all yours,” Erwin’s presence commanded attention in the room as he talked, “only if you just do what we ask you too.”_

_The_ _inspecteur_ _slammed the briefcase shut and pushed it away from him. “And throw my dignity away? Non. I’ve spent years upholding the law, only for you to want me to throw it all away for money? I have to refuse gentleman. Get out now or I’ll arrest you both.” He stood up as if this somehow his years of standing in the face of stone-cold criminals would work upon these two._

_“_ _Inspecteur_ _, you wouldn’t want anything to happen to your children, would you?” Levi smugly crossed his arms over one another._

_The_ _inspecteurs_ _face blanched in color at the threat. “Are you threatening me monsieur?”_

_“Not a threat_ _inspecteur_ _,” Levi took a step close until the only thing separating him and the_ _inspecteur_ _was the desk, “but a promise. Your daughter is in college and your son still in high school, it’d be a shame if something happened to them on their commute or at school.”_

_The_ _inspecteur_ _slammed his hands down onto the desk, he let out a sigh of defeat, “what do you want?”_

_Levi slid the briefcase back across the desk, “the money is compensation for your time. All we need you to do is just a few simple things for us.”_

_The man stared at Levi with an incredulous look and then stared back down at the thousands of euros in the briefcase. “All this to drive a car?”_

_Levi nodded as he took the briefcase out of John’s hands. John shook his head, the oily and limp blonde strands of his hair shifted as he did so. Levi stared down at his hands as he placed down his cutlery, they were shaking. Levi wondered how long his last score was. John pushed out his chair and moved towards the rather dirty and banged up fridge in what he called an apartment. Levi bit his cheek as he heard the squeak and skittering of a rat behind him. As John opened the fridge, Levi reached into his pocket and pulled out a white handkerchief, he reached across the table and clutched John’s fork with the handkerchief which he quickly folded and then placed back into his pocket. “Do you want one?” John shook the beer bottle in his hand. Levi shook his head._

_“Just drive the car John and then you’ll get your money.” John seemed to ponder this as he pulled off the cap of the beer. “I’ll do it.” He closed the fridge and stood up, he turned and was surprised to find himself alone._

_“Here.” Levi handed the_ _inspecteur_ _the white handkerchief. The_ _inspecteur_ _unwrapped it and stared at the contents within. “I’m sure there’s some partial finger prints you can pull off of it. Use them in the investigation; say they came from one of the kidnapper’s along with the other useful items I gave you. Do that and just follow everything else I told you.”_

_“What else is there?”_

_“There’s going to be a black Chevy driving on the Anne-de-Bretagne Bridge at a very fast speed with the license plate I’ll be writing down. The kidnappers will be in it and you must apprehend it at all costs.” Levi watched as the_ _inspecteurs_ _jaw ticked._

_“And what should I do when the higher up’s start to look into this?”_

_“I’ll take care of them. Just focus on the task at hand. That’ll be all_ _inspecteur_ _. Tell your family I said hello.” Levi smirked as he left the office._

_“Are you sure this will work?”_ _He stood with his arms crossed as he watched Hanji roll out the thin mat on the bed she had carried with her._

_Eren’s chest rose and fell in his drug induced slumber as Hanji pulled out a large needle from the mat. “It will. I’ve never been proven wrong before.” The needle contained an almost iridescent blue liquid that shimmered under the dull light of the bedside lamp. She gripped Eren’s arm and pressed the tip of the needle into the crook of his elbow, she pressed down on the stopper and slowly watched as the liquid disappeared into Eren’s arm._

_She pulled the needle out of him and replaced it back into the mat before pulling out a slim and small penlight. The young teen’s eyes snapped open as his skin broke out in a thin sheen of sweat. “Eren,” Hanji began as she sat down on the edge of the bed beside him, “I need you to tell me a few things…” She aimed the bright light into his eyes. His pupils dilated. “…and then I’ll help you forget.”_

_Levi’s gaze turned to the dim glow of the lamp as the sound of rapid clicking became the only sound that filled the silence of the room._

_“I’m going to ask you about what happened in that warehouse. Who was in there?” Hanji’s voice was soft, almost like a mother calming down their newborn after they had a fit._

_“A man in nice clothes,” Eren’s speech came out slow and thick as if his voice had been dipped in thick molasses._

_“I think he’s talking about Reiss,” Hanji whispered as she kept clicking the light on and off. “Who else was there Eren?”_

_“Two men…I didn’t know them. And Krista and I were their too.”_

_“Ok. You’re doing good. Now did Reiss ask you anything?”_

_“He asked about my dad.”_

_“Levi?”_

_“No not him.” Levi whipped his head to stare at Eren. “What does he mean by that?” Levi moved closer to the bed. “Eren what do you mean by that?”_

_“Levi,” Hanji hissed as a warning for him to move away. He complied and moved back to his position near the wall. “What happened after he asked you about your father Eren?”_

_Eren frowned in his drug induced haze and blinked, “he laughed when I started talking about dad…and then he told me—”_

_“What did he tell you Eren?”_

_“He told me that he wasn’t talking about dad; that he wasn’t my father.” Levi’s fingers dug into the flesh of his arms. “Erase his memories.”_

_Hanji turned at him with an incredulous look on her face. “Levi! You know I can’t do that. All I can do is bury his memories in his subconscious; even then there’s a likelihood they’ll return. What you're asking me is an extreme measure that has more setbacks than it does promises.”_

_“I don’t care.” Levi’s voice was low and menacing. “Erase them Hanji.” The two stared at each other; Hanji’s concerned eyes and Levi’s cold ones, until Hanji looked away, her jaw was tight and her lips stretched out in a stubborn line. “Fine.” She held the pen up to Eren’s eyes and began to click it on and off at a faster rate that she had done before. “Eren just concentrate on the sound of my voice—and I’ll help you forget everything.”_

_Eren sighed as he stared into the light. His eyes dilating and widened as the light suddenly became all he could see. Expanding and expanding until all that enveloped him was the light itself and Hanji’s voice seemed become more distant as his mind faded out._

            Levi sighed as he settled himself down on the couch and grabbed the remote from off of the coffee table. He turned on the TV and switched the channel to a mid-morning news station. The station was displaying the shootout on the bridge that had happened this week. The reporter was discussing a rather alarming situation that had occurred after the police exchanged a hail of gunfire with the kidnappers, the police had attempted to approach the vehicle when it had suddenly exploded. Two officers were in critical condition and it seemed as if they wouldn’t make it. The reporter called the incident unfortunate. He turned as he could hear Eren calling him from the kitchen. He switched off the TV and stood up. Yes, it really was unfortunate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I really didn't expand too much on a lot of information surrounding Krista/Historia. First I would just like to say when I looked back on previous chapters I hadn't realized I'd been writing out Historia instead of Krista and I would like to apologize for that. Secondly, if you're familiar with at least the AoT manga I really didn't want to re-explain events that you guys already know about, if you don't read the manga I'm sorry, but there's enough information in this chapter that you don't really miss out on too much. Also, this chapter means that we are 95% of the way through the current arc of this fic and the next chapter-chapter 13 will finish up this arc and I'm probably going to take some time to figure out what's coming next. I can promise you guys that the next chapter is going to be packed with truck load's of drama and someone that we all love may or may not survive. But please stay tuned and I'll try to upload on a more frequent basis.


	13. Judas Kiss

**September 1 st**

            For the first day of September, it seemed that summer desperately gripped the world in its tight embrace. Everything seemed to be dripping in sweat and unfortunately Eren’s shirt was hardly standing up to this type of heat. The collar of his shirt and the space underneath his armpits were soaked with sweat through and through. This was his third shirt of the morning; the first shirt had lasted him until breakfast and the second was just enough for him to reach his front door before realizing he had to change again. He sighed to himself, he had another shirt tucked away in his bag just in case. He wiped his hand across his sweat drenched face and wiped his hand against his shirt. Newscasters had called for at least the first week of September to be exceptionally hot, with temperatures pushing 40 degrees Celsius. Eren groaned as he continued to trudge forward in the path of the sun; the school gates were a beacon of hope of hope for him as they symbolized a building with an operational AC.

            The one Eren and his father owned in their home was a heaven sent miracle. Just turning it on for a few seconds left them feeling as if they had permanently moved their home to the freezing and barren landscape of the north pole…unfortunately that heaven sent gift had broken 3 days earlier and they could find no one to fix it as at least 4 of the technician they had called had been unable to fix it, citing that the AC was so ancient that it would just be suitable to buy a newer model. Unfortunately his father was stubborn in that regard and outright refused to go to the store to buy a new one—it wasn’t like he would have been able to either, as every single department store and shopping mall that sold an AC unit had had their shelves wiped clean within a few days and wouldn’t be expecting a fresh shipment anytime soon. Eren could feel the edges of his vision going blurry as he trudged towards the school gates, he was so close, he thought to himself as his knees began to wobble under the strain of his own weight. An arm wrapped itself around his shoulder and his chin pressed against a firm shoulder.

            _“Mikasa?”_ Eren’s face went red as his friend wordlessly continued her walk towards the school. His face seemed to become a shade brighter each time he heard a snigger or even a whisper about Mikasa, carrying him on her back. _“Mikasa, please put me down.”_ He pleaded with his friend. Mikasa simply ignored him as they walked through the school doors and into the sweltering heat that rivaled what could be felt outside.

            _“Mikasa I was wondering where you—”_ Armin came rushing towards the duo, his own face dripping with sweat and his hair sticking to his head like someone doused him with a bucket of water. He pressed a fist to his mouth to stifle the laughter that rose to his throat.

            _“Don’t you dare,”_ Eren warned as Mikasa finally lowered him from her back and he felt his feet touch the floor. He sighed as the heat from inside the school finally hit him like a sucker punch. He pinched the collar of his t-shirt between his two fingers and began to pull at it repeatedly until he felt a small waft of warm air caress his skin. The inside of the school was much hotter than it was outside; few students milled about in the hallways and those who did physically resembled zombies as they shuffled to and fro and looked like they were on the verge of collapse.

            _“Eren are you alright? You look pale?”_ Armin was in his face, staring at him as Eren brought a hand up to his face. He felt fine. He was certain of that much, he thought to himself as a teacher came into the hallway and told any student straggling in it that they had better hurry along to their respective classes.

            _“I’m fine. Now come one before we actually get in trouble for being late.”_

            He felt terrible. He felt like it was his first few days being back home again after his kidnapping. His head was pounding him and from the concerned looks his friends were giving him, he sure he looked as awful as he felt. A couple of students throughout the day had already passed out from the extreme heat and many more students looked like they were going to collapse at any moment. Eren pressed a hand to his eye as his head pounded painfully, stealing the breath from his entire body as his grip on his pencil tightened; the thin wood between his fingers threatened to snap. He swallowed thickly as he forced himself to pay attention to his teacher’s lecture, who in his opinion looked just as ready to collapse on the floor along with some of the students. Eren’s headache persisted throughout the day; growing in strength until the period before lunch he could hardly take it and spent the entire period with his face plastered against his desk. His head was killing him to the point that he could barely even form a thought as that would soon be ripped to shreds in his mind by a sudden and terrible burst of pain.

            He had to be dragged to the cafeteria, his head was hurting him so badly that he could barely walk on his own two feet and had to rely on his friends to get him there. His fork was gripped tightly between his fingers as he had one hand pressed to his forehead. His headache was much stronger now than it had been all day and it was killing him.

            _“Eren? Do you want to go to the nurse?”_ Eren shook his head, though it was painful for him to even do so. He forced himself to smile in an attempt to placate his friends’ worries.

            _“I’m fine, so pleash don’t—”_ His words came out slurred as he stared into the distance. The table shook as his friends stood up and he felt someone’s hand on the small of his back as the muscles in his body started to twitch and shake and his eyes rolled into the back of his head. Screams suddenly filled the cafeteria as students started to jump up from their seat and crowd around the group that had already formed around Eren. There was crying and screams that filled the cafeteria; teachers stormed the cafeteria and attempted to push through the crowd to see what was going on.

            _“Eren!”_ Erwin’s tall frame cut through the crowd as he rushed towards Eren, who was seizing on the cafeteria floor. _“Someone call the ambulance right now!”_ Erwin glanced down at Eren’s face; a mix of relaxed bliss and pain had settled itself onto Eren’s face. The seizures were violent he noted as he started to strip himself of his suit jacket and rolled it up as he lifted Eren’s head and placed it back down onto to the rolled up jacket. The sound of wailing ambulance sirens could be heard from outside of the school. Shit, this was all just becoming one big giant mess.

 

            The rhythmic beeping of medical machines filled the room along with the sound of soft breathing. The faint smell of leather and cigarette smoke seemed to occupy the space; the smell reminded Eren of his father when he often came into the house after smoking a cigarette outside or when he slipped on an old, faded leather jacket that he owned whenever they went somewhere in the city. Eren stirred in the bed, sinking into the softness of the sheets and the pillow that his head rested on. Everything just felt so right, so warm, and satisfying that he didn’t want to open his eyes. There was a soft murmuring somewhere in the distance, like a voice speaking over an intercom system. He wondered if this was a dream, that this was something his brain was imagining as he laid in bed. There was a weight on his legs that he had never felt before, like a sack of potatoes had just been dumped all over his lower half and left there until his legs went numb under the pressure. His eyes opened and the first thing his sight was greeted to was the eggshell white ceiling tiles that were as unfamiliar to him as the vast greenery that lay beyond the borders of France. The steady, rhythmic beeping of the machine caused him to turn his head; he watched the line that signaled the strength of his heart beat rise sharply and fall until it rose again. He glanced down at his arm where a thin needle had been pushed in underneath his skin and delivered I.V. fluids into his body.

            The glass doors to the room he was in slid open and a young female doctor walked into the room, her silhouette illuminated by the harsh lights of the hospital hallway. Her long ponytail rested against her back and a stethoscope was draped around her bronze neck. Her eyes conveyed a certain warmth that only those in the medical field seemed to possess. _“It seems that our guest is finally awake.”_ She moved over to Eren’s hospital bed and picked up the chart that was clipped to the end, she flipped through it and placed it back down. Eren glanced around at the hospital room before he finally settled his gaze onto the doctor.

            _“What am I doing here?”_ His voice croaked harshly from lack of use. He brought a fist up to his mouth and coughed into it as scaled fingers racked themselves along the interior walls of his throat. The doctor crossed the room and picked up a Styrofoam cup full of water with a straw in it and held the straw to Eren’s lips. He thankfully grasped the straw between his lips and sipped down the water like a dying man and before long the cup was empty and drained of every ounce of water it had once contained. Eren pulled his lips away from the straw before asking again: _“Why am I here?”_

            The doctor simply smiled at him and patted his head as she tossed away the cup into a trash bin next to the small table that was close to the hospital bed. _“Get some sleep kiddo. You need all the rest you can get.”_ Eren’s mouth opened in protest, but he was quickly silenced with a stern stare that was only that had years of practice behind it. _“Get some sleep,”_ She repeated again, before moving towards the glass sliding doors and pulling the right one open as she stepped out. Eren let out an exasperated sound as he let his head sink further into the pillows beneath his head, he closed his eyes hoping that sleep would envelope him quickly like a warm hug. The constant beeping of the machines in the room and the invariable announcements and calls for various doctor’s over the hospitals pa system and the thrumming footsteps of patients and doctor’s outside the room were too busy filling up the empty spaces of his already rested mind.

            He considered getting up out of bed and glanced over at the bedside table next to him. His phone was there and placed down so that the back was facing upwards to the sky. Eren leaned over the side of his bed and grasped the phone, he flipped it over in his hand and watched as the home button lit up every few seconds or so with a blue pulsing light. He tapped the screen and squinted as the bright light was a bit too much for his eyes. His text message icon on his phone flashed crimson red, indicating that he had a message. He tapped on the icon and waited as his screen went blank for a few seconds until a wall of missed messages all emblazoned in crimson red flooded the screen, he scrolled down; briefly glancing at the text messages—there where get well wishes from his friends, concerned and hastily written texts, a few from Armin promising to visit him later and bring him laminated copies of his own notes from classes he would miss. Mikasa had sent him a few texts, informing him that he needed to text her as soon as he woke up to let her know that he was still alive. Connie and Sasha had texted him as well with promises to visit him and Sasha sneaking him a few bags of her favorite chips. Jean had sent him a string of motivational gifs and emoji’s. He soon grew tired of scrolling through the massive wall of texts as his thumb began to cramp him and turned off his phone to replace it back on the nightstand as he pressed his head against the hospital pillows once more.

            A deep, gnawing fear settled itself into his gut and his mouth soon tasted like sour citrus as he wondered what would happen to him as he realized that something on a severe level had required him to be taken to a hospital in the first place.

            As a child whenever he had become severely ill, whether it be the flu or some other medical condition his father had always taken it upon himself to nurse him back to health. There had been sleepless nights, circles under his father’s eyes that were reminiscent of a moon draped in utter darkness. Hushed whispers that where had outside his bedroom door, small murmurs that in a fever induced state he had thought to imagine. There had been a time when a week had passed, his fever had remained unnaturally high and he could tell by the look on his father’s face as he jerked back the hand he held to his burning forehead that he wasn’t on any track to be getting better anytime soon. There had been a fight; between his aunt and his father. Hanji had wanted to take him to a hospital, arguing that his fever hadn’t broken anytime in the week and that he looked pale and close to death’s door at any moment. As grim as a prognosis that had sound, his father had stood firm and refused so much as to even put his ill son in the car and take him to a 24 hour children’s clinic that was a little over thirty minutes away from them. His aunt had cursed at his father and stormed out of the house after that.

            It was a miracle that Eren had later recovered that week, his fever having tempered off and then finally breaking early one morning. He had been lucky and never seen his father breathe such a sigh of relief before. It was strange to Eren that it was now in his life that he found himself to be in a hospital, he had went through life without having ever set foot into one whether it be for a yearly checkup or to receive a vaccination. His father had always patched up his wounds and through tears and blood stained gauze and cold scalpels had taken care of the worst one’s for him; broken bones and skinned limbs that other parents at the first sight of them would have loaded their children into the cars and whisked them off to hospitals as soon as they could. For Eren that was never an option and from an early age he had learned that the most gruesome of injuries could be taken care of at home with anything that could be found in a fridge or pulled out from a drawer and it all worked out as long as the injury itself wasn’t further intensified or as long as you didn’t pass out from the shock of the pain or blood loss itself.

            His eyes were starting to drift shut as the slowly darkening room began to have an effect on him. His mind felt too heavy to even carry a single thought as the room slowly started to darken further and further as outside the sun began to dip below the horizon and the stars began to throw of the light colored silks that kept them hidden from the morning world and the moon had barely shown it’s fresh face to the sky before he himself was slipping fast into the sandman’s arms and dreaming a stress free dream.

 

            The tires screeched against the asphalt and the smell of burnt rubber suddenly filled the air as Levi turned into the hospital parking lot, well turning was more or less an exaggeration as Levi drove as if he had police chasing after him. The blasting of car horns was like a trail of breadcrumbs left behind him. The car in front of him jerked to a stop before their cars collided, he barely glanced in the other car’s direction as the driver flipped him off and blasted the car horn loudly enough that passerby’s stopped in their tracks to glance at the commotion. Levi had haphazardly parked his car across the thick yellow line that indicated the separation of parking spaces, he killed the engine to the car and jumped out even before the car stopped humming and vibrating from the last bits of energy remaining in it.

            His heart was pounding in his chest as he took off down the hospital parking lot and headed towards its front doors that just barely slid open before he crashed into them, a small factor that he couldn’t care about as the physical pain he might have suffered weighed less in his mind than the cold dread that was slithering inside of him right now and wrenching and twisting his organs in a vice so tight he was struggling to breathe. The cold blast of air that circulated throughout the hospital was like a fist to the face compared to the steaming heat that had ensnared the city for a few weeks. Levi came to a skidding halt near the receptions desk, his sudden appearance startled the nurse behind the desk whose ear was pressed against a telephone. She glanced up at him and mouthed that she would be with him in one moment.

            Growing annoyed and frustrated, he reached across the receptionist desk and plucked the phone out from her hand. Her stoic faced quickly changed into one full of shock as he slammed the phone down onto the receiver. _“My son? Eren Ackerman.”_ He spoke in short, clipped sentences and glared at the nurse until she swiveled her chair and pressed her manicured nails against the keys of the keyboard next to her. She peered at the screen and swiveled her chair back to face him.

            _“He’s in room 203—”_ the nurse had barely finished the rest of her sentence before Levi took off down the hall towards the elevators. The nurse stood up from her chair and leaned over the receptionist desk, her mouth opening widely like a fish struggling to breathe in open air, before she simply shook her head and elected to reseat herself in her chair.

            Levi’s strode down the hallway; the jumbling thoughts in his head making it difficult for him to even think straight, much less collect his thoughts and rearrange them in an order so that he could have a single clear thought. His heart was pounding in his chest with worry as his stomach performed a volley of gymnastic tricks inside of him. Every imaginable fear that he had held inside of himself for years was coming to the surface of his thoughts. _Had they taken his blood? What if he needed a transplant? What tests had they done on him? How much of his history did they look into?_

            He stopped suddenly, nearly crashing into a random gurney that was pushed up to the wall, he balled his hand in a fist and punched at the wall with the side of his fist with as much force as he could muster. A small fist sized hole remained in the seam foam green painted wall beneath his fist. His right hand was covered in plaster dust and thankfully there was no one in this hallway to come and bother him. He glanced at the hole he just punched into the wall and felt just a tiny bit calmer than he had been feeling before, but not calm enough as these thoughts were still etching themselves into his skin. He made his way to the elevators and pressed the number 2 button. The doors to the elevator slid open and Erwin was already out of his seat and rushing towards him. _“Levi—”_ Erwin’s hand fell on his shoulder and Levi’s hand shot up to his wrist, pulling his hand off of him and twisting in his wrist in a way that made him uncomfortable and let Erwin knew that he was in no mood to be comforted right now.

            Erwin winced as Levi tightened his grip on his wrist as the pain shot up from it and into his shoulder. _“Give me one reason Erwin—a single reason as to why I shouldn’t break your arm right now and bet you to death with it.”_

 _“I know you’re mad Levi—”_ He winced as Levi’s grip turned tighter. _“—but tell me what was I supposed to do?”_ He whispered, _“leave a student who was in seizure on the floor? Don’t forget that some of us are actually attempting to keep up the acts we have going.”_ Levi removed his grip from Erwin’s wrist and shoved the blond away from him.

            _“You’re just lucky my son isn’t dead.”_ The words were out of his mouth and low and cold as a dark skinned female doctor rushed over towards the two; her eyes darting between them.

            _“Messieurs is everything alright over here?”_ She came to a halt before them, her eyes narrowed in concentration as her gaze refused to stay singled on one of them.

            _“Everything’s fine,”_ Levi forced the words through gritted teeth. His gaze was cold as he glanced at Erwin from the corner of his eyes, it felt like a cup full of ice and had been dumped down the back of his shirt.

            _“Would you happen to be Monsieur. Ackerman?”_ The doctor continued, this time finally letting her gaze rest on Levi.

            _“Yes. Where’s my son?”_

            The doctor held up her hands _, “we’ll get to that in a moment Monsieur. Ackerman. Right now we need to talk about your son, Eren.”_

            He could feel his stomach drop to his feet as his brain churned out thoughts and fears faster than he could take a train from Nantes to Paris. _Oh god, what had they found out?_

            The doctor continued, _“Eren is doing well and he’s stable despite the seizure. We did have to run some blood tests as seizure’s in teens his age are fairly uncommon. Now the type of seizure he had is called a grand mal seizure; it’s where the brain—”_

 _“Doctor,”_ Levi abruptly interrupted her _, “I’m well aware of what a grand mal seizure is.”_

            She blinked for a few moments and then trudged onwards, _“yes, well as I said seizures are fairly uncommon in people of Eren’s age and as seeing as he has no documented medical history—”_ Levi swore her eyes narrowed for a few brief moments at him, _“—I would advise that he’s admitted to the hospital for a few days. As I want to conduct some neurological exams and order a few more tests to be done in order to make sure that Eren has a clean bill of health. And also to check that there’s no underlying medical condition that caused these seizures.”_

            He was opposed to the very idea. There was no way on Earth that Eren would be staying in this hospital for a few nights away from home; away from his eyes and away from his protection. _“No.”_

            The doctor’s eyes widened with an incredulous look, she blinked and stared hard at him. _“Monsieur. I don’t think you understand the severity of what just happened to your son. I can’t just allow him to leave the hospital without having more tests conducted on him.”_

            Levi could feel himself getting annoyed and angry. A combination that wasn’t good and surely wouldn’t be ending well for him nor anyone within a close proximity to him. He opened his mouth and then there was a hand on his shoulder—Erwin’s hand. Erwin’s burning glare told him to silence his mouth before it got him or anyone else into more of a predicament. Levi bit his tongue, hard enough that he could taste the bitterness of his own blood.

            Erwin this time was the one to speak _, “forgive Monsieur. Ackerman here, he’s just concerned about his son.”_

            The doctor’s eyes were still trained on Levi, a little bit hesitant, but she seemed to be placated by the explanation from Erwin. _“Well Monsieur. Ackerman, I can assure you your son will be in good hands here and we won’t keep him here longer than necessary. I just have a few paperwork that I need you to fill out and then you can go see Eren.”_

            Levi tersely nodded, feeling sick to his stomach about the current course of events. His anger was boiling beneath his veins. He bit down on his tongue harder. For Eren to be away from him with everything that just recently happened was one of the worse events that could ever have occurred.

            _“Levi—”_ Levi’s lip curled upwards into a snarl at the sound of Erwin’s voice.

            _“Don’t you dare talk to me Erwin.”_ The words were spat out of his mouth like a curse. The hatred laced in his words were all too apparent to Erwin. _“Don’t talk to me.”_ He shrugged his shoulder, letting Erwin’s hand fall off of him and trudged away, like an angered lion who had just lost its prey. And Erwin was beginning to get the sense that he didn’t want to be around when the lion soon grew hungry to gorge itself on another prey in compensation for the one it lost.

 

            The room was shrouded in darkness. The only light that albeit was faint but illuminated a few inches of the room came from the bustling hospital hallway. As he stepped foot into the room, he could hear the soft and steady beeping of the machines and the even softer, slower and almost melodious breathing of the patient inhabiting the bed. He walked into the room—slowly—his footsteps producing no sound against the waxed tiled floors. He came to a halt at the edge of the bed and stared down at the sleeping figure; watching the rise and fall of his chest with each breathe that the body below him took. He reached down and pressed his fingers against the smooth forehead, brushing away the strands of hair that fell across Eren’s eyes. He rubbed a lock of hair between his fingers, deciding that Eren’s hair had become rather long and needed to be cut sometime soon.

            When was the last time he had done something like this? When he had just spent some time watching Eren sleep? He noticed that Eren’s jaw was more angular compared to the round face and chubby cheeks he had carried around with him for most of his life. It hit him that Eren was no longer the small child he had once pressed to his chest in the middle of the night, after being woken up by his own nightmares and murmuring soft lullabies against his cheek. Eren was no longer the small child he had looked over and cared for over the years. It pained him, it felt like he had a large knife pressed against the veins that ran through his heart. Had it been so long since he had taken a leap into the cold night’s air and plunged into the cold embrace of that dark German river? He was broken out of his thoughts when Eren mumbled in his sleep and rolled onto his side; his expression softened with fatherly love.

            He grabbed the chair next to the bed and sat down in it as he drifted off into his own thoughts. The thought had often come to him in the past—barely more than a thought, but really the inkling of it—to tell Eren about who he truly was. _Who_ and _what_ his father truly was. What had happened that night so long ago in Germany that for Levi know seems no more than just a horrible dream. That thought had filled his stomach with lead and wore him down till he no longer wished to think about it. He knew he would dread watching the twist of emotions that came over Eren’s face at the revelation of the news? What would he have felt? Anger? Horror? Shock? Betrayal? The entire life he had lived for so long being built upon the foundation of lies and unfortunate events.

            Levi’s thoughts twisted back to that night. That night when he had entered the Yeager home and found Grisha slumped over in his chair, the light in his eyes long faded. Something had just felt so off about that night, like the entire thing reeked of a set up and Levi had tossed the entire event into the back of his mind the moment he had set foot in France. It was gnawing at him now, the hunger to figure out the answer to a question he possibly couldn’t begin to understand. He needed to get all of his chess pieces in order, he needed to get to the bottom of this entire affair. He took one more glance at his son and once more that awful guilt that he felt reared its head. The urge to tell Eren was so strong, but he wouldn’t, he just couldn’t. It wasn’t something he considered that he felt ready to do and something that Eren as well wasn’t ready for yet either. As he stood up out of the chair, he thought to himself. That if it was better to keep Eren wrapped up in a fantasy story, a story in which he would be safe and loved, that he would continue to keep it going for as long as he could possibly could.

            He wouldn’t tell Eren about this awful secret and if anyone did…he would kill them.

 

            Eren’s eyes flew open as the muscles in his body tensed up. There was a hand firmly pressed over his mouth, he could smell the scent of leather and almost taste it upon his tongue as well. He could tell whomever was beside him was tall; taller than him and he could tell a little bit stronger too. There was a strength that this person was subduing. If he quickly moved his hands and captured this person’s wrist, all he would have to do was break it. Just one clean and smooth break, it would disorient and faze his unknown assailant, but it would give him enough time to hop out of the bed and move close to this person to deliver a punch to the tip of their chin. With enough force like his father taught him it would hopefully knock them out.

            He began to relax his muscles, it wouldn’t do well for him if he was tense in the middle of all this. The hand on his mouth pressed down tighter, pulling him out of his thoughts a bit. He didn’t notice he was breathing hard now, but he was. He stayed like that in the bed for what seemed like hours; pressed down into the mattress with a hand over his mouth and his heart thumping in his chest. He could hear his own heartbeat and the pumping of blood in his ears. His face felt hot and he realized he was scared.

            The hand on his mouth lifted up suddenly and he bolted upright in bed; his mouth open wide to scream until he was the glint of a familiar object in the darkness of the room—it was a knife and one of the ones commonly used in the German military. Its handle almost seemed to blend in with the darkness of the room and the blackness of the leather glove and the blade was the same way. The knife point curved at the end, like half of a crescent moon. Eren’s eyes narrowed, the Bundeswehr wasn’t a knife that a common mugger or a killer would be carrying around. Just who the hell was this? The figure wagged his index finger in front of Eren’s face before the hand was pulled back and pressed against the lips of the balaclava clad face. It was a warning to be silent. Everything this person wore was black as midnight and Eren couldn’t see his eyes, a thick pair of what appeared to be snowboard googles where wrapped around this person’s face.

            Eren wondered how the hell this person had even made it past the security guards.

            A thin smartphone was suddenly produced in front of him. The brightness of the screen caused him to squint, but he stared down at the thick jet black letters on the white background. _Don’t move_. The figure held up the knife threateningly and stared at Eren for a few moments before going to the corner of the room. The one closest to the TV and staring up at the point where the wall and ceiling met. They looked back down and then their hands were moving, Eren was wondering what they were doing, but then they moved and walked to the other side of the room; their back turned to Eren as they fumbled once more with whatever was in their hand.

            They moved around the room, repeating the action several times, before coming to the flower vase that sat upon the nightstand. Eren wondered when that had gotten there and he looked at the mysterious figure’s hand and noticed that they had a slim device; slimmer than the latest IPhones and topped on the surface of it. Eren’s brows pushed together. _What was going on?_

            They put the device back into the pocket of their pants and pulled out the other device Eren had just seen the message plastered on. The screen was pushed back in front of him, but this time the message on the screen was different. _What do you know?_ Eren was begging to wonder the same question, none of what was going on right now made the least bit of sense to him. Eren tensed up as a he felt the coldness of the knife suddenly pressed against his neck. The screen was almost slammed against his face with how close this unknown figure pushed the phone closer to his eyes. The same message was still displayed.

            Eren shook his head _, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”_

            The figure pulled the smartphone back and his thumbs were furiously flying over the screen, he shoved the phone back into Eren’s face. _What have you been told?_ What the hell was going on here? He was suddenly starting to become very mad.

            _“What the hell is going on? Is this a prank?”_

            Being unable to see the figure’s eyes much less the person’s face was starting to bug him. He couldn’t tell what emotions this person was feeling or what they were thinking. The phone was pulled back and when it was presented to him, it read:

            _What do you know about your family?_

            His family? How were they connected in this? Was someone after him? Was someone after them? His skin felt hot, like he suddenly had developed a fever.

            _“Stay the hell away from my family.”_ He didn’t know why, but he swore it seemed like this person had just cocked their head to the side. Weather it was in bemusement, curiosity or something else he was uncertain of.

            He suddenly felt awfully confused when the phone was thrust before his face once more. His entire body suddenly felt extremely cold, like someone had managed to freeze the blood within his veins. _What do you know about the Yeagers?_

 

 **September 8 th  
**            Eren coughed with laughter as he felt Armin’s arms around his neck. _“I’ve returned from the dead!”_ He announced, earning him a punch in the arm by Mikasa.

            _“We thought something happened to you,”_ Armin whispered, refusing to let go from his friend.

            _“Why? I’m perfectly fine. A small seizure is nothing to worry about.”_ It had been a few days ago since he had been released from the hospital. All of the tests and bloodwork’s the hospital had performed on him came back negative, but still just wanting to be on the safe side. His doctor had informed his father that it would be best for him to stay at home for a few days.

            It had become rather annoying to be pampered by his father, uncle, and aunt whom were absolutely adamant that Eren not even lift a single finger and just rest and that they would get him what he needed. His aunt had come up from Paris the day he was released from the hospital and had taken up residence in the empty guest room in the house for a single week. She had stepped out of the car with three giant shopping bags full of video games and systems that had yet to be released until later this year. His father was irritated the moment he watched her struggle to even pull the bags out of the car, but looked up at him, smiled and ruffled his hair before going outside to the driveway and kicking his aunt in the butt.

            Armin finally pulled away from his friend, a quizzical look on his face. _“How didn’t you hear about what happened at the hospital?”_

            Eren shrugged, his gaze darting back and forth between his two friends. A gentle breeze worked its way over the tops of the trees and rustled the vibrant green grass. When he didn’t say a thing, Mikasa and Armin glanced at each other.

            _“The murders at the hospital?”_ Mikasa began and continued on when Eren looked at her with a blank expression. _“The hospital you were in just a few days ago. They found a handful of security guards behind the hospital. The police say each of them had been shot in the head execution style.”_

            Eren’s blood ran cold, even on such a warm day. His mind flashed back to that black cloaked figure that had been in his room. The knife pressed against his neck and those messages on the phone. _“No. I didn’t hear a thing about it.”_

            Mikasa stared at him with a blank expression; her face devoid of all emotion. _“Don’t you watch the news or at least read it? It’s been the only thing everyone has been talking about these past few days.”_

            Eren shook his head, offering up a simple shrug of his shoulders. _“Not a big news person.”_ He simply stated as he stood up from the cold cement steps. He brushed off the back of his pants and peered down at his friends. _“Now are you staying for dinner or not?”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Left you guys with more questions that I possibly have ever answered. Things are going to be heating up from now on in these next few chapters.
> 
> There's going to be a big gap between the update of this chapter and the next as a lot of questions and unresolved issues that the characters in this fic have are going to be addressed and resolved in the next one so prepare yourselves for an extra long chapter.


	14. Damnatio Memoriae

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I present to you another long chapter, or in this case an extremely long chapter to tide you guys over until the next update which is coming up VERY soon, again sorry for the lengthy delay between chapters. I'm really trying to keep a consistent update schedule for this fic, but college classes are getting in the way and I promise that for future fics from now on are going to have a much needed, set in stone schedule for me to update them. A little warning for you guys, you might want to prepare a couple of tissues.

**September 20 th**

            Yeager.

            That name had become the only thing Eren could think about. That person that was in the hospital room with him had asked him if he knew anything about that name. But why?

            As soon as that person had thrust that smartphone in front of his face, the hospital soon became coated in flashing red. The darkness of the room had retreated, being replaced with flashing red lights that coated every inch of the hospital room he occupied and the hallways themselves. It was eerie as he watched doctors and nurses run by, painted in this almost disturbing blood red. The mysterious person seemed unfazed by this, simply pulling the smartphone away from Eren’s face and placing it in a pocket on the black jeans that they wore. Eren swallowed, his throat heavy with fear. The person calmly regarded Eren and walked to the room door. As the glass doors slid open, Eren jumped out of bed. _“Wait!”_ He shouted and rushed to the door, the mysterious person moved quickly out of the room and turned right. Eren rushed into the hallway and looked to the right where this person had gone, his shoulders slumped and his brows were pressed in confusion as he looked down the hallway and saw nurses and doctors running about. A sea of white coats and nothing standing out in between them.

            Ever since that night, he had decided to task it upon himself to figure out how the name Yeager had any sort of connection with him. He had done research at home. Had sat down on his bed with his laptop and typed Yeager into the search engine that had brought him zero hits on the name. He had gone to the local library and gotten a book on German surnames, he had sat down and flipped through that book for countless hours until the lights in the library had gotten turned on and the clock on his phone read that it was past midnight. He thought that some of the books at school might hold the key to the question he was trying to solve. During the lunch periods he had rushed to the library under the pretense of catching up on missed homework, his search had proven fruitless as nothing could be found there. His next course of action had been to ask his teachers. They had looked at him quizzically and told him to hurry along. Mme. Petra had smiled at him with a soft expression and told him that name didn’t ring a bell and likely was something he had made up. He had gone to his uncle and aunt afterwards, they had brushed him off and promised to take him out to eat or to a video game store sometime during the week. He had gone to his grandfather whom had looked at him as if he had been five-years-old again and had told him a large fairy tale that his childish mind had invented. He had taken a leap of chance and asked his father one night during dinner. His father’s fingers flying across the screen of the tablet, typing out a hasty reply to an urgent email.

            Eren jabbed his fork into the meatball and twirled it around on his plate, the sauce that covered the noodles beneath the meatball squished and gurgled. _“Papa?”_

            _“Yes?”_ Levi hardly glanced up from the screen of the tablet. His own fork still laying against the napkin beside his plate. The steaming plate of food that had been placed down on the table no more than five minutes ago was starting to go warm. The glasses on the bridge of his nose were sliding down his face, but he made no move to adjust them.

            Eren hesitantly brought the meatball to his lips, the cylindrical ball of meat dripped with a mixture of fatty juices and a freshly made tomato and basil sauce. Eren bit off a small portion of the meatball and slowly chewed, watching his father for a few seconds before asking. _“Do you know anything about the Yeagers?”_

            His father’s fingers froze against the screen of the tablet. He looked up at Eren, his glasses dangerously close to sliding off of his face completely. _“Eat your dinner and no one by that name exists.”_

            Eren trudged forth _, “I was just thinking that maybe you knew something that I—”_

            _“Eren eat you dinner or I’m giving all the madeleines to Hanji.”_

            Eren pouted as he chewed on the meatball skewered to his fork, once again watching his father’s fingers fly across the tablet screen. Defeated, he looked down at his plate, not noticing the way his father’s fingers stilled for a few brief moments against the tablet screen or as Levi looked at him from the corners of his eyes.

            His search was turning up nothing for him, like a tree that promised to produce fruit, his search was fruitless. It was beginning to wear him down and annoy him that each path he took led him to one dead end after another. Every lead he thought he had soon shriveled up and died. Day after day he spent time chasing down ghosts that weren’t there and he began to think he was at least going a little bit crazy. Maybe the seizure had an effect the doctors had somehow missed during his CAT scans?

            It wasn’t until a rainy September afternoon that he found himself looking outside upon the rain drenched world that an idea came to him. An idea that would have to as he saw no way that it wouldn’t. He waited half of the school day until lunch. The furiosity in which he nearly slammed down his tray upon the lunch table caused his circle of friends to halt their movements…and for Sasha to stop eating, her fork hanging out of her mouth and her eyes looking longingly at the baked potatoes upon her tray. Bertolt, Reiner and Annie stared at him with blank expressions, but underneath them was an all-knowing glint that flashed and sparkled in their eyes. _“I need you guys to do something for me.”_ He started off.

            Armin looked inquisitively at him, stirring his spoon around in his soup. _“What do you want us to do? It’s not anything illegal is it?”_

            Eren shook his head _, “no. Nothing like that. I just need you to look up a name for me. Yeager.”_ He stared at each of his friends, hoping a flicker of recognition would light up in their eyes. When none came, he could feel his hope die a little within his chest. He watched as his friends each inclined their head in response to his request. There was still a ray of hope within him. A ray of hope that he could find the answer to this burning question, but with each passing moment that ray just seemed to be getting dimmer and he thought more than once to himself that maybe he was getting wrapped up in something that had nothing to do with him. Or something that might have led him down a dangerous path. And he found that he desperately needed a momentary distraction from this crazy search.

            Luckily such a distraction came to him in the form of one tall boy.

            _“Eren!”_ Eren turned his head at the shout of his own name. He watched as Bertolt walked down the slightly crowded hallway, using his tall frame to pick through the crowd until he ended up directly in front of Eren.

            A smile worked its way across Bertolt’s lips as he reached with an outstretched hand towards Eren, but the smile on his lips soon disappeared as quickly as it came and he dropped his hand heavily to his side. He nervously brought his hand up to the back of his neck and rubbed at the exposed skin. The awkwardness between them was as palatable as burnt sugar. Their relationship was undefined even weeks after spending time together and the occasions both of them found themselves with at least one article of clothes missing. But these past few months Eren had come to see less and less of Bertolt as the taller boy blamed it on his busy schedule and the increasingly frequent colds he had been coming down with. Ones that kept him in bed and away from school, ones that seemed to last for several days or a few weeks. He and Eren hardly anymore had time to talk to each other, unless it was in passing, which usually consisted of a quick _“salut.”_ Or unless Bertolt was attached to Reiner or Annie’s hips and even then it was difficult to talk to him or even the three of them as all seemed to just drop off the face of the Earth and fall ill with the flu or pneumonia at precarious times and not show up to school for quite some time.

            _“So….uh…how have you been? I kind of heard from Armin about what happened to you.”_ Bertolt glanced at anywhere else in the hallway besides Eren.

            Eren could feel his throat tightening a little at Bertolt’s tone that conveyed a lack of concern. He wondered what Bertolt felt about him? If they shared the same sense of feelings or if they both were as wildly different as two different animals. _“I’ve been fine. Just resting a lot. How have you been though? You’ve kind been gone from school for a while.”_

            Bertolt still refused to even so much as glance at him. He raised his fist to his mouth and coughed into it. He shrugged his shoulders, _“I feel…okay. My cold wasn’t super serious.”_

            Eren hummed as the two fell into a dull silence. The other students in the hallway passed by them barely casting them a glance as some milled about with their friends or headed to the library or one of the study rooms in school as it was a free period.

            Eren watched as the apple in Bertolt’s throat bobbed up and down as he thickly swallowed. _“Eren, ah do you think we could maybe talk alone? Somewhere besides—”_ He trailed off, vaguely motioning towards the hallway, buzzing with the chaotic voices of others. Whatever Bertolt wanted to talk about, it seemed it couldn’t be done with other ears about. Eren nodded and lead the way as he headed towards the staircase across from the library that directly lead towards the study rooms.

            He passed by the brightly lit rooms until he came to one that was dark, his hand rested on the cool knob as he turned it and pushed the door inwards, flipping the light switch on with his index finger. He stood to the side and motioned for Bertolt to enter the room. Bertolt walked into the room and slid his book bag off of his shoulder before dumping it onto the low table that was in the middle of the room. He plopped down into one of the many bean bag chairs that littered the floor.

            Eren closed the door to the room and chose to stand near the door, he stared at Bertolt, waiting for him to talk.

            _“Sorry, that I’ve been….pretty much nonexistent lately.”_

            Eren brushed him off with a simple shrug of his shoulders and a set firmness in his jaws. _“It’s fine. People get sick all the time.”_

            Bertolt studied him for a few hard seconds before trudging on with what he needed to say, _“that’s not what I’m trying to get at. I’m trying to talk about us or well—”_ Bertolt’s cheeks started to turn pink. _“Do you even want—”_ Bertolt shook his head as the words in his mouth became a jumble; difficult for him to even put forth into the empty space. He nervously rubbed the back of his neck, _“what I’m trying to say is…have you ever thought about going out with me. I mean just making out relationship official?”_

            Eren’s brows lifted up in surprise and the corners of his mouth quirked into a smile. _“You’re serious?”_

            Bertolt tossed him a confused look, his brows were furrowed together. Eren shook his head, laughing to himself a little. Bertolt’s eyes widened in surprise at the feeling of soft supple lips suddenly pressed against his own. Eren pulled away from Bertolt, his tongue flickered over his lips. _“Is that a good enough answer for you?”_

            Bertolt stared up at him, a smile cracking itself across his features, _“that’s some answer,”_ he said before reaching up towards Eren and placing a hand on the back of his neck, he pulled Eren down and their lips were on each other once more. Lips pressed against lips, slowly opening like blooming flowers. Eren’s spine shivered as Bertolt stuck his tongue in his mouth, the tip of his tongue skating across Eren’s teeth. Eren moaned softly as Bertolt kissed his way across Eren’s jaw. He nearly jumped in his skin as the sharp shrill of a bell coursed its way through the school.

            Bertolt chuckled to himself as he pressed his forehead against Eren’s shoulder. Eren sighed as he pressed his face into Bertolt’s hair. _“Later?”_ Eren sighed.

            _“Definitely later.”_ Bertolt chuckled before giving Eren’s lips a peck once more, before pushing himself off of the ground and snatching up his bag from the table. Eren smiled at him and waved as he turned the knob of the door and stepped out into the hallway.

            Bertolt walked down the hall as students started to flood the hallway, moving towards their next class. He could hear two sets of steps falling in behind him.

            “How’d it go?” Annie asked coolly in English, bringing a hand up to her face to brush a lock of hair from her eyes.

            “It went fine,” was Bertolt’s curt reply. He could feel the warm heat of a hand on the middle of his back. Reiner’s hand and one meant to be a comforting gesture.

            “Don’t feel bad about this Bertolt. It needed to be done. We need this to be done.” Reiner stressed the last part of his sentence.

            Bertolt stopped in the middle of the hallway, the ebb of students was slowly dying down, and he turned around and stared at Reiner. “I know that. I won’t regret anything I do here or anything that needs to be done.” Reiner’s hand slid up to Bertolt’s shoulder and squeezed it.

            “Good.” He turned his head and peered over his shoulder as down the hall, the door to one of the study room’s opened and Eren stepped out, quickly bee lining his way to a set of stairs. He turned back towards Bertolt, watching the tall teens face as his eyes were trained on Eren, watching every single one of the teen’s movements. Reiner’s grasp on Bertolt tightened until he glanced down at him. Reiner wordlessly stared at him. “Don’t.” That single word set a determined tick to Bertolt’s jaw and a steely glint in his eyes.

            “I know that,” he whispered, “I know.”

 

            Eren laughed as his head fell back against the pillow. His chest rose and fell and the bright rays of the evening sun that filtered into the room caused the sweat on his chest to shine in the bright light.

            Bertolt flopped down beside him, he quickly rolled onto his side and pressed his cheek against the palm of his hand, his other hand rested on the bedsheet covering Eren’s lower half. Eren could feel the heat radiating from Bertolt’s hand on his stomach. _“Well, that was fun.”_ Bertolt beamed at Eren, flashing him a teeth baring smile.

            Eren laughed, turning on his side to press his face into Bertolt’s neck, _“that was more than fun.”_

            He quickly pushed himself upright in bed at the sound of the front door opening. _“Eren!?”_

            Levi’s arms were folded in front of his chest as he stared down at the pair of sneakers, haphazardly placed near his son’s own that he knew belonged to neither of them. He could hear the creaking of wood floors, banging and a litany of courses before the door to Eren’s room flew open.

            His eyes narrowed a little bit as he spied the disheveled state of Eren’s hair and clothing, his eyes narrowed even more as Bertolt poked his head out of Eren’s door to look out into the hallway.

            A nervous smile stretched across Bertolt’s face, _“hi, Mr. Ackerman.”_

            Levi wordlessly stared up at him to the point that Bertolt’s nervousness was beginning to increase. Levi’s gaze simply shifted to Eren and without a word he headed towards the kitchen.

            _“Do you think he likes me?”_ He could hear Bertolt whisper and Eren’s laughter soon followed after.

 

            _“So, Bertolt was it? What do your parents do for work?”_ Levi stabbed his fork into the thin slab of steak on his plate with far more force than necessary.

            _“They’re both surgeons.”_ Bertolt answered, cutting the flank of steak with the edge of his fork, his shoulder brushing against Eren’s with every little movement he made. Levi could feel the smooth waves of rage bubbling beneath his skin.

            _“It must be tough—with both of your parents being surgeons.”_ A pool of blood puddled beneath Levi’s steak as he speared through it.

            Bertolt shrugged his shoulders, _“not really. I used to get lonely a lot whenever they were at work, but I got used to it I guess.”_

            Levi hummed to himself as he lifted a piece of steak to his mouth and slid the fork between his lips; the meat dissolved in his mouth immediately. _“You have such a weird…accent, it’s quite hard to place. Where did you say your parents were from again?”_

            _“I didn’t actually.”_ Bertolt chewed on the food in his mouth and swallowed before resuming talking _, “we’re actually from Germany. We moved to France when I was five.”_

            _“What part of Germany are you from?”_

            _“Southern.”_

            _“Papa, I think the cake is burning in the oven.”_ Eren spoke up from pushing his rice around the plate with his fork, hoping to derail the impromptu interrogation that his father had somehow set up.

            Bertolt turned his head to stare at Eren, a look of genuine confusion plastered onto his face. _“I don’t smell anything burning?”_

            Eren wanted to smack his face against the table.

            _“That’s interesting,”_ Levi commented as he picked up his wine glass, full to the brim with a vintage red and took a sip of it. _“I used to go to Germany when I was younger.”_ Eren’s brows rose at this tidbit of information.

            _“Really? Where to?”_

            Now it was Levi’s turn to shrug as he waved his fork in the air, _“all over.”_

            Eren picked up his glass of water and pressed it against his lips as he tipped his head back and began to drink.

            _“So, what’s your relationship with my son?”_

            Eren suddenly leaned forward and began to splutter and cough as water suddenly went down the wrong pipe. He pressed his mouth into the crook of his elbow as he replaced his glass back onto the table.

            _“We’re dating.”_ Eren’s eyes flickered from Bertolt to his papa. He was hoping that his face would show some hint of an emotion, but his papa’s face was as smooth as a polished mirror. He could feel his skin suddenly go cold—very cold.

            Levi nodded at that and they finished their dinner with light hearted conversation.

 

            Eren’s bare feet padded softly against the wooden floor as he came to stand beside Bertolt who was slipping his feet into his sneakers. _“I think that dinner went well.”_ Bertolt said as he began to lace up his sneakers. Eren snorted with laughter as his boyfriend turned to face him. The sound of running water and the clattering of dirty dishes could be heard from where they stood. Eren stood on his tiptoes to plant a chaste kiss on his boyfriend’s lips. _“I’ll see you at school?”_ Eren asked as Bertolt nodded. Eren showed him out through the front door and breathed a sigh of relief as he slowly shut the door close.

            He headed back to the kitchen. His father’s back was turned to him as he lifted a plate from the soapy water and scrubbed at it hard with the sponge in his hand. His father said nothing to him as he stood there, he nervously shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

            _“Break up with him.”_ His father’s words shattered the silence that hung between them. Eren was taken aback by the abruptness of his father’s words.

            _“Why?”_

            _“Don’t question me! Just do as I say.”_ His father spat out, a bitter taste quickly filling his mouth.

            _“No. I’m not going to break up with him just because you tell me to do so.”_ Eren’s mouth turned down into a scowl.

            Levi lowered the plate back into the water and turned around to stare at his son. _“You’re going to break up with him because **I said so**.”_

            Eren’s blood was beginning to boil. _“You don’t get to make decisions about my life! You don’t own me!”_ Eren jumped out of his skin as his father’s hand smacked down harshly against the metal frame of the sink.

            _“I don’t, but you do live under my roof and you are a minor. So my word is law and if you don’t like it, well that’s tough luck.”_

            _“You’re being irrational.”_ Eren’s words barely cut through the thick layer of skin that Levi built up.

            _“No. What I’m being is rational. Which is clearly something you seem to be lacking right now.”_ Eren mentally took a step back at such harsh words as Levi trudged on with his. _“Bertolt isn’t right for you, there’s something off about him and its better if you end your relationship with him now and focus on your studies.”_

Eren took a step forward, his eyes narrowed, _“do you realize you’ve said the same thing about all of my friends? About pretty much any decision that I’ve made for **myself** in my entire life? You don’t own me so stop trying to pretend like you do.” _ Eren spun on his heels and stormed out of the kitchen as if a giant storm was swirling around him and threatening to demolish the house to its bare bones. He could feel his father’s gaze, like a burning concentration of heat on his back as he raced towards his room and slammed the door shut.

 

**September 25 th**

            _“I hate living there so much.”_ Eren sighed into Bertolt’s collarbone. They were in Bertolt’s apartment, his parents weren’t there so when Eren had called Bertolt took the innovative in inviting him over.

            The apartment was small, but big enough to accommodate two adults who hardly spent their time there and their teenage son. From what he could see the apartment was decked out in expensive furniture and sleek steel covered appliances and a flat screen TV took up an entire wall in the living room area.

            The two found themselves laying on Bertolt’s bed; he rubbed small circles with his thumb into Eren’s back. _“Look on the bright side, you have what, like a year left in that house and then you get to go to college?”_

            Eren groaned as he pushed his face further into the crook of Bertolt’s neck, inhaling his tantalizing scent of citrus fruit and fresh soap. _“Ugh, don’t make me think about that. I haven’t even started looking at a single college yet.”_

            _“Well, I do know of a way for you to distract your mind from things for a moment.”_ Eren pulled his face away from Bertolt’s neck in order to tilt his head as to get a better glimpse of his face.

            _“Oh? And how is that?”_ A cheeky grin lit up his entire face.

            _“By doing this.”_ Bertolt answered before pressing his lips against Eren’s. Eren sighed as the soft touch of his boyfriend’s lips quickly turned into an open mouthed kiss. Eren groaned as Bertolt’s teeth playfully nipped at his bottom lip. Bertolt’s hand’s snaked underneath his shirt, his fingernails lightly digging into his skin as Bertolt raked his nails over his ribs. They’re blissful moment was cut short as Bertolt’s ringtone cut through their moment.

            _“I have to take this,”_ Bertolt smiled wickedly at his boyfriend, _“but after…we can have some more fun.”_ Bertolt pushed himself off of the bed and quickly grabbed his phone off of the small nightstand next to his bed and left his bedroom to take the call.

            Eren pushed himself up on his elbows to take in the entirety of Bertolt’s room. Posters of random bands lined the wall, the bookshelves were packed to the brim with random assortment of books and everything was as clean as a teenager’s room could be described to be. He looked at the room, and suddenly felt that something was off about the layout.

            The entire room felt like it was purposely thought through and created to give an air that someone lived here. He had noticed coming in everything in the house had seemed pristine, barely used or touched and everything was perfectly lined up including the shoes. He glanced at the open bedroom door and cocked his head to the side, he could hear the soft murmur of Bertolt’s voice from the living room.

            He carefully rolled onto his side, his eyes trained on the bedroom door as he swung his left leg over the bed, his foot touching the wooden floor, and he did the same with his right. He stood up and tiptoed to the bathroom directly connected to Bertolt’s room. He slowly shut the bathroom door behind him, before he moved to the medicine cabinet and opened it. Inside of the cabinet was routine cold and fever medicines, a bottle of Tums and toothpaste and a toothbrush. He grabbed a bottle of fever medication out of the cabinet. He shook it, feeling the heavy weight of the bottle in his hand. A plastic seal was still wrapped around the cap of the bottle. He placed it back and pulled out a bottle of cold medicine. The medication was still sealed in its box. All of this unopen medication seemed quite odd for someone who claimed to be sick on a consistent basis. He rifled through the medicine cabinet, finding unopen and sealed medicines that looked as if that had been bought from a random drug store and shoved into this cabinet never to be touched.

            A growing suspicion was beginning to gnaw at the back of his mind. Everything in this apartment gave off the feeling of being artificial.

            A knock on the bathroom door, cut through his thoughts, like a sharp knife gliding through a loaf of bread. _“Eren, is everything okay in there?”_ Bertolt called out from the other side of the door.

            _“Ah, yea!”_ Eren shouted as he fumbled to put back the bottle of medication in his hand back into the cabinet.

            _“Okay, I was going to order pizza. Do you want any?”_

            _“Yea!”_ Eren shouted as he quickly moved over towards the toilet and pressed down the handle, the sound of the toilet flushing filled the bathroom. He moved towards the sink and turned on the cold water tap on full blast as he shut the medicine cabinet. He plunged his hands into the water and turned off the tap, before throwing open the bathroom door. Bertolt stood in front of him, his face devoid of any emotion. Eren cracked a smile at him.

            A toothy grin soon appeared on Bertolt’s face, _“so what do you want on your pizza?”_

 

**September 26 th**

 

            Levi stared up at the clock as the hour hand fell onto two. It was officially two in the morning and his son was nowhere to be found—well that part was entirely true. He knew where his son was, but it didn’t appear that he was going to be walking through the door anytime soon. His fingers danced against the ceramic mug in front of him full of coffee that had long gone cold as he sat there.

            The two were no longer talking and the silence was beginning to be become unbearable for Levi. Every little creak of this old house, led him to jump out of his seat and stand in the middle of the kitchen to see if that sound was the front door opening. Each time he leaped out of his seat, he was only met with disappointment.

            The sound of his nails tapping against the mug were the only sound that filled the empty space of the house. He glanced at his phone, only an inch away from his right pinky. His teeth pressed into his lower lip as he contemplated picking up the phone and calling or even texting Eren. That idea quickly faded from his mind as the minute hand on the clock _ticked_ and _ticked_ away.

            He groaned, letting his head fall down until his forehead smacked against the wood of the table, he ignored the dull ache of pain that pulsed on the surface of his skin. Why was raising another human being so hard? He thought it would be incredibly easy. Just show love and compassion, provide shelter and other basic necessities, teach them morality and watch them grow and your job was done from there. No one told him that there would be rough patches, such as your son refusing to talk to you or not even coming home at 2 in the morning.

            He turned his head so that he cheek was now resting against the cool surface of the table. Exhaustion was written across every part of his face as he rapidly blinked tears from his eyes, his eyelids were growing heavy with sleep. His blinked once, then twice, until sleep finally won in its battle and he was out like a light.

            He must have slept for a long time because the sound of the front door opening and slamming shut was the only thing that woke him. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and quickly pushed out his chair from the table, hopping to his feet he quickly raced out to the hallway as he watched Eren kick off his shoes, his backpack slung across one of his shoulders. Levi realized he must have come home at some point while he was sleeping.

            _“How was school?”_ He asked as Eren adjusted the strap on his shoulder, shot him a dirty look and climbed up the stairs to his room. The house shook with the slam of Eren’s bedroom door.

            Levi sighed, choosing to drag his hand down his face in lieu of putting his fist through the wall. His eyes focused on Eren’s discarded shoes. There was not enough coffee in the world or cigarettes for that matter to get him through this day.

 

            _“Eren!”_ Eren turned around as he heard Armin’s voice calling out to him, he watched as the blond teen looked both ways across the street before running across towards him.

            _“Armin, what’s up?”_ He grinned at his friend, but his expression soon faded away as he noticed the skittish nature of his friend. He watched as Armin’s eyes darted left and right; watching and nervous, like someone was following him or them. Eren looked up and down the street, there were no suspicious looking people or cars. He glanced up at the shops and complexes that dotted the other street, nothing suspicious there either. He suddenly couldn’t shake off the feeling that someone was monitoring them.

            _“Don’t look,”_ Armin whispered softly, forcing a grin onto his face as he stared pleadingly at Eren _, “down the street—sitting outside the café. Blue jeans and a red baseball cap. Just nod if you see him.”_

            Eren wordlessly said nothing as he glanced down the street out of the corner of his eyes. It was a lovely day so there were a lot of patrons drinking coffee outside of the café. There was a lone man, wearing a pair of jeans, an old shirt and a red baseball cap, lowered enough so that his features were obscured. Eren’s jaw tightened as he nodded his head tersely.

            _“He’s been following me since this morning.”_

            Eren turned his gaze back to his friend, his eyes narrowed slightly. _“What did you do?”_

            Armin shook his head, his mouth turned down in a scowl, _“nothing! Just what you asked us to do at lunch the other day remember?”_

            What was going on? Eren thought to himself as he glanced downwards at the café. Their pursuer must have noticed something was amiss because he lifted his head ever so slightly in the direction of the two teens while placing his coffee cup down on the table. Eren continued to stare, the hairs on his neck started to raise. _“Armin. When I say run, we both run. Got it?”_ Armin nodded. _“Then run!”_ Eren and Armin turned, taking off down the street at a fast paced run, they could hear screams and commotions behind them as they rounded the corner of the street and continued running.

            _“Oh my god!”_ Armin screamed. Eren looked over his shoulder, if he wasn’t currently living in scenario that meant life and death he would have laughed at the scene before him. The baseball cap guy was behind them, his long legs steadily catching up to them. _“Is he even human?”_ Armin’s voice cracked as the two continued running, he yelped as Eren gripped his arm in his hand and pulled the two into oncoming traffic. Cars horns blared as their drivers pressed their heels into their breaks to avoid hitting the two. Eren half dragged and half ran with the teen as they dodged and swerved their way through pedestrians. Eren looked back over his shoulder, still surprised to see that their pursuer was still chasing after them and quickly gaining on their heels. _“Follow me.”_ He simply stated as he rounded another corner, pushing through the oncoming crowd until the entranceway to the subway was right in front of him. The two ran towards the steps and flew down, pushing aside random pedestrians who were climbing or descending the stairs.

            Eren was breathing heavily as he shoved his hand into his jeans pocket and rummaged around until he found his wallet. He tossed a glance over his shoulder as their pursuer raced down the steps, Eren could make out that he was wearing a pair of black shades and had a neatly trimmed beard. Eren tapped down his wallet against the surface of a scanner in front of him. It beeped, the light on it going green and the gates barring him from entry to the subway system swung open.

            Eren dragged Armin through the gates. _“Wait shouldn’t I pay?”_ Armin protested, still trying to maintain a semblance of his law abiding dignity.

            _“No time for that.”_ Eren countered as he spotted people shuffling into a train a few yards in front of him. _“Come on!”_ He shouted, picking up speed and tightening his grip onto Armin’s arm as he raced towards the train.

            His heart felt like it was going to pound right out of his chest as the last few people filed into the train. A young woman’s face twisted into a look of concern and surprise as she saw the two of them rushing towards the slowly closing train doors. Eren looked behind him and his heart leapt in his throat as he saw that their pursuer was getting closer and closer to them to the point that if he reached out with his arms, he probably could grab onto Armin. A tiny burst of sped shot its ways into his leg as Eren gripped his friend’s arm tightly and swung the blonde teen forward toward the train. An unholy scream ripped itself from Armin’s mouth as he tumbled into the passengers of the train and Eren jumped through the doors after him. He could hear them slide shut with barely a whisper—nearly catching on the edge of his sneakers.

            He looked up, wiping a strand of hair out of his face, as the train started to pull of their. Their pursuer glared down at the two behind his black sunglasses as he pounded on the train door, keeping up with the train until it started to pass through the underground tunnel. Eren and Armin both started laughing, ignoring the looks of heated concern and annoyance by the other passengers on the train, who far likely concerned about the most dangerous thing they had ever seen two young teens do.

            Eren and Armin got off of the train at a subway station near downtown Nantes. Their limbs felt tight from exhaustion as they climbed the steps up to be doused by the rays of the sun and fresh air.

            _“Do you think we lost him?”_ Armin wheezed as he bent forward, placing his knees on his hand. Sweat was dripping down his face from the physical excursion he just went through.

            Eren’s shoulders rose and fell _, “I don’t know, but we can’t stay here.”_ He looked around him, trying to get a familiar grasp of where he and Armin were. There were a lot of high end shops located in this section of the city. His eyes light up as he found a suitable place for them to hide out. _“Armin, come on.”_ Armin yelped again as he was dragged along yet again.

            The crowd around them swallowed them whole as two pairs of feet climbed the steps leading up from the subway. The rays of the sun bouncing off of the black sunglasses that adorned their face.

 

**September 26 th (12:30 PM)**

            Chilled air, provided by the AC’s buzzing above them. The cool air felt like a thousand kisses against their exposed skin as Eren pressed his cheek against the cold class of his drink while Armin sipped on his. The chaos around them of thousands of people running around in the arcade provided them with enough coverage so that if anybody came looking for them, they would be hard to find amongst the masses of kids and teenage boys that frequented this arcade.

            Armin’s fingernails tapped against the cold glass that he gripped firmly in-between his cupped hands. Eren knew that he only ever did this when he was extremely nervous. _“Armin. Something on your mind?”_

            Armin continued to tap his fingers against his glance as he stared intently at the polished wooden table in front of him. _“I think we’re in trouble,”_ he whispered so softly that Eren had to lean forward in his seat as to hear him.

            Eren’s brows raised in a questioning manner. _“Why? I don’t see that guy in here. I think we’re safe.”_

            Armin shook his head, a fire danced in his eyes. _“That’s not what I’m talking about.”_ Armin’s fingers stilled against the glass and he leaned forward; so close that Eren could see this terrifying fire burning brightly in his eyes; Eren leaned backwards in his chair, the cold metal of the stool pressing into his back. _“You don’t understand Eren. Something is seriously wrong here. It’s like everything we knew is slowly disappearing, like someone wants all of this information to disappear.”_

            If Eren already wasn’t both disturbed and confused, he definitely was now. _“Armin, buddy. What time did you go to bed last night?”_

            Armin reached across the table, grasping Eren’s hand in his own. Armin’s hand was cold, colder than the entire building itself. _“Eren, you don’t understand the hole we’ve gotten ourselves in.”_

            Eren pulled his hand out of Armin’s cold grasp, he was becoming increasingly worried by his friend’s sudden and out of character behavior. _“Armin, you’re not making any sense right now.”_

            Armin’s gaze shifted to the myriad of people walking around them; mingling amongst themselves or friends or going from game to game that the arcade offered. _“Not here. I don’t feel safe talking about it here.”_ Eren glanced around the arcade. He wondered what Armin had to tell him that he deemed it important enough to not tell him in a crowded setting. Or warranted the attention of a mysterious stalker who was intent on making sure that neither of them disappeared from his sight. Eren nodded his head, _“fine. We won’t talk here. Why don’t we go to your house.”_ Armin nodded and the two stood up and made their way out of the arcade.

            A few minutes after they left, a tall figure pushed his way through the rumbling crowd of the arcade. He stopped at a table pushed up against the wall, two glasses of half-finished drinks remained on the table. He reached out with his right hand and placed the back of his hand against one of the glasses—it was still cold, but the middle of the glass was slightly less cold than the bottom of it. The boys were here, but not for too long and it seemed that they had just left in the last ten minutes. He was getting closer.

**September 26 th (14:00 PM)**

            Eren and Armin walked through the front door of the Arlert home. They passed by the living room where Armin’s grandfather sat, his gaze fixed on the TV in front of him that was playing the afternoon news. He turned his head at the sound of the wooden floor behind him creaking underneath the weight of footsteps.

            _“Ah, Armin. Back so soon?”_ Armin rushed over to his grandfather who with shaking limbs was attempting to rise from the reclined chair he sat in. Armin pressed a hand on his grandfather’s shoulder and gently pushed him back down into his seat.

            _“Hello, Mr. Arlert.”_ Eren beamed at the old man who craned his neck to see whom it was that had walked through the front door with his grandson.

            _“Eren! It’s been so long since I last saw you. How is your father and grandfather?”_ Armin’s grandfather asked as the blond teen rushed around the living room, grabbing a quilt that was tossed across the couch and draping it over his grandfather’s lower half.

            _“They’re fine.”_ Eren gave a clipped reply and hopped Armin’s grandfather wouldn’t ask any more questions about his family.

            _“Eren and I are going to go up to my room. I’ll be back down soon to make dinner.”_ Armin interjected before his grandfather could ask Eren another question. The old man nodded and his gaze turned back to the TV where the meteorologist was talking about an impending storm that was a few hundred meters away from the city and expected to hit by the middle of next week.

            Armin glanced at Eren as he wordlessly led him upstairs to his room. Eren had been in Armin’s room a couple of times after he had moved into his grandfather’s house after the death of his parents in a tragic card accident. Both of his parents had been extreme workaholics who had dropped Armin off at his grandfather’s home pretty much every single day since he could form a small sentence. His grandfather’s home had become more of a real home to him than the apartment that he lived in with his parent’s that made him feel cold and alone when he was left in there by himself. He at times barely remembered the faces of his own parents since they worked so often they barely spent time with his son. Their death came as a shock to Armin, but he had his grandfather to rely on his friendship with Eren and Mikasa.

            Armin pushed open the door to his bedroom and Eren wasn’t surprised that the room had changed very little since the last he had been here.

            A large map of the entire Earth was pinned up on the wall above the small bed that was pushed into a corner of the room. Almost every available surface of the room was covered in books ranging from astrology to mathematics and Eren even noticed a few books on hacking and some rather obscure subjects he had never heard of. Armin motioned to his bed as he moved to his desk, picking up a pile of books he had placed there earlier and planting them instead on another pile of books so that they now formed one tall tower of books that came up to Armin’s waist. Eren wondered if any of these piles had ever toppled over before. He took a seat on Armin’s bed and Armin planted himself in the chair, turning so that he was facing Eren directly.

            _“So,”_ Eren started, _“what exactly did you have to tell me?”_

            _“I think someone’s trying to erase history.”_ Armin said it with such a conviction that Eren thought it would be rude to laugh in front of his face. _“I know what you’re thinking— that I’m making a joke, but I’m not.”_ Armin swiveled his chair to face his laptop and started typing down on the keys. The computer screen booted up and Armin pressed down on his mouse so that the chrome search engine popped up on the screen. Eren got up off of the bed and made his way to Armin’s side where he peered over his shoulder.

            _“Eren. Where did you hear the name Yeager from?”_

            Eren glanced at Armin, his tongue rolled over the tip of his teeth as he selected his answer carefully. _“Someone just told me about it.”_

 _“Well whatever it is there should be information about it, but watch what happens when I google it.”_ Eren watched as Armin typed in _Yeager_ into the search bar and hit the enter key. The page came up blank with zero hits. _“Don’t you find it strange that a random strange told you to find out information about Yeager and nothing comes up at all?”_ Eren nodded. _“Well, I found this super strange. And Yeager sounded really familiar to me. So I ended up searching the term through routers in other countries.”_ Eren raised his brows, casting an incredulous look at his friend. Armin’s cheeks turned red as he continued on. _“Well, that also turned up nothing. So I thought it was strange that in every single country I couldn’t find anything about Yeager. So I decided to check if that term was blacklisted—”_

            _“And how’d you do that?”_ Armin’s cheeks couldn’t have possible been redder than they were right now.

            _“I may or may have not hacked into some government databases.”_ Armin mumbled underneath his breath. _“But that’s beside the point. I still didn’t find anything and at this point I was finding it really weird. How was it that nowhere on Earth was there any information about Yeager? Like who it could possibly be or what it was? So I got to thinking and after searching around for a bit, realized that there was a Trojan horse implanted into the major computer companies.”_

            _“Like the virus?”_

            Armin nodded, _“yea, like the virus. Except this one was much more cleverly disguised and deadlier. You know how computer companies regularly send out mass updates to fix bugs that were left undetected whenever your computer gets updated to newer model of the system? Well, this Trojan horse was designed to look like a routine bug fix and was implanted into the companies’ main unit that sends out these updates. So when your computer automatically installs those updates, the Trojan horse gets installed into your system._ ” Armin’s fingers tapped against the keys of the keyboard as he continued to talk. _“So. After a bit of getting rid of the Trojan horse what we’re eventually left with is this!”_ Armin’s index finger jabbed down on the last key and the once blank screen was replaced by a flood of information and pictures.

            _“Who was trying to hide all of this?”_ Armin shrugged his shoulders as Eren peered at the screen over his shoulder. There were thousands of articles going on about the young doctor Grisha Yeager who had paved a way in the medical industry and was leading it from the front lines and then there was his wife, a Spanish opera singer renowned for her lovely voice. Eren leaned over Armin and gripped the wireless mouse in his hand and scrolled down. He stopped at a picture of the young couple and it suddenly felt like someone had punched him in the throat. His eyes were focused on the women in the picture. Her small smile and her the crinkles around her eyes seemed so familiar to him as if he was staring in the mirror at his own face.

            _“Eren!”_ Eren was snapped out of his mind by Armin calling his voice. Apparently the blond teen must have been calling him for a while by the look on Armin’s face.

            _“I’m sorry. What did you say?”_

            _“I said. What are you going to do with all this information?”_

            Eren glanced at the computer screen once more, _“can you send all of this to me. Make sure it’s all under lock and key. I don’t want anyone to know what we’re doing.”_ Eren told Armin. Or for that fact, he simply didn’t know who he could trust anymore.

**October 1 st (10:00 AM)**

            Eren swallowed thickly as he maneuvered through the halls of the school. His right hand gripping the strap of his bag tightly as his mind was haunted by the image of that woman’s face—Carla Yeager. He couldn’t deny the unbidden truth that was growing and festering in his mind, no matter how much he wanted to scream and label it a lie. There were too many similarities he found between himself and Carla. The perpetual laugh lines around their eyes and mouth, the curve of their smile, the color and gleam of their eyes. Eren had wanted to cry in sorrow and joy when he had made such a discovery—Carla was his mother, there was no denying it.

            But then the questions started to pour down upon him, like an afternoon rain. Was she still alive? Where was she? How was she and his father connected? Could she have known his father before she got married? Or were they having an affair? Why had she abandoned him outside of his father’s door? What was her favorite food? Did she like the same things he did? All of these questions were boiling inside of him until he abruptly came to a stop in the middle of the hall as the most important question of all jabbed at his heart. Why had his father lied to him for so long?

            His phone buzzed in his pocket. He shoved his hand down into his jean’s pocket in order to pull out his phone. His thumb tapped on the screen as he typed in a passcode on his phone in order to unlock it. Armin had sent him an encrypted file that would delete itself immediately after he had read it. He opened it and he swore his heart stopped beating in his body. It felt like the world had slowed down around him as he concentrated on those two words in front of him. Yeagers murdered.

            His mother was dead.

            A hand on his shoulder caused him to jump out of his skin as he quickly shut off his phone and turned to face whomever was behind him. Bertolt’s beaming face was behind him.

            _“Hey. You look…stressed?”_

            Laughter bubbled in Eren’s throat _, “that doesn’t describe half of it.”_

            Bertolt’s lips brushed against Eren’s cheek. _“Want to ditch school? We can go back to my apartment. I can give you a way to make you less stressed.”_ He winked at Eren who laughed at him.

            Eren shrugged his shoulders _, “sure. I think I could use a break from school for one day.”_

**October 1 st (12:20 PM)**

            Levi thanked the cashier as he deposited his change into his wallet. His phone buzzed in his pocket as he bit into the donut in his hand, holding it in his mouth as he dug into his jeans pocket for his phone. The screen of his phone displayed a grid map of the entire of Nantes and down in the corner of it a blinking red dot flashed on the screen as it moved rapidly through streets. Levi narrowed his eyes as he knew school was neither out nor was it ending early for the day. Eren was skipping and he was glad that he had decided to install a tracking device into the sole of his sneakers. Levi again reached into his pocket and withdrew a Bluetooth device that he pressed into his ears. He switched it on and listened in on the conversation his son was having with whomever he was with via a conveniently placed microscopic speaker on his book bag.

            He continued to walk down the street, munching on the donut in his mouth as he peered down at his phone. He shouldn’t have been too surprised that his son was with Bertolt. The two seemed to be spending every waking second of their time with each other. His eyes narrowed a little, just what was that lanky teen trying to do?

            Levi walked quickly as the flashing red dot on the phone started to slow down. Considering that his destination was almost halfway across the city, he decided that if he walked fast he might be able to reach there in the shortest allotted time.

            It took him a little less than under an hour to arrive to his destination. He looked up at the apartment complex, wondering which floor the two were on as he leaned against the edge of the fountain that was located across the apartment complex. He titled his head to the side as he focused in on the conversation.

            _“I have some wine. Would you like some?” Bertolt asked as he shut the apartment door behind him._

_“Sure.”_

            There was some shuffling and the sound of a wine bottle being opened and poured into glasses. What followed after was light conversation and senseless dribble, light laughter, and then more talk about the day’s weather and the difficult of classes at school. Levi had sat down on the edge of the fountain and was about to give up when a loud moan rang in his ear, like an electric shock the feeling coursed down his spine as Eren moaned again.

            The sound of rustling clothes and the scrape of chairs suddenly filled his ear. He pressed a hand to his mouth as there were more moans and hisses of pleasure. Levi’s thumb was already tapping on the screen of his phone as he held it up to his ear. His call was answered on the first ring.

            _“Hello?”_

            _“Eren get out of that apartment right now.”_

            There was an incredulous tone in Eren’s voice _, “what are you talking about I’m in school right now.”_

            _“Don’t give me that bullshit. You’re in Bertolt’s apartment right now. Put your clothes on. We’re going home immediately.”_

            He heard a soft “what the fuck?” tumbling out of Eren’s mouth as the soft sound of feet padding against wood followed after. The curtains of the apartment on the sixth floor brushed aside as Eren peered from the window to see his father standing several feet below. Levi saw him as Eren pulled his face away rapidly from the window. _“I don’t want to hear any complaints, put your clothes on and come downstairs.”_ Levi hung up his phone.

            _“What’s going on?” Bertolt asked._

 _“It’s my fucking dad. He somehow knew I was here.”_ Levi could hear the rustle of clothes. _“I’m sorry, but I’ll text you later or something.”_

            Levi waited until Eren came down out of the apartment, a storm of anger swirled behind him as Levi flagged down a cab and Eren wordlessly got in before him. Levi’s hand rested on the taxi door as he looked up at the apartment window. Bertolt was standing at the window wordlessly, a smirk on his face as he peered down at the scene below.

            Levi was beginning to hate this kid’s guts.

**October 2 nd (10:00 AM)**

Eren walked down the hall, absorbed in the book that he held in his hands. He yelped as he was suddenly gripped by the arm and yanked into the empty boy’s bathroom. His back was pushed up against the wall. Bertolt’s face appeared behind him, his eyes skittish, afraid, and dancing with a fire Eren had never seen before. _“Bertolt is everything okay?”_

            _“We need to talk.”_

_“Is this about what happened yesterday? Because I can assure you that I didn’t know my dad was going to do that.”_

            _“I’m leaving.”_

            Eren’s eyes narrowed, _“What do you mean you’re leaving? Like leaving school because you’re sick again or what?”_

            _“No. I’m leaving France…for good.”_

            Eren pushed Bertolt away from him with a surprising amount of force. _“What the hell do you mean by that?”_

            Bertolt reached out with a hand towards Eren, but decided against it and let it hang limply at his side. _“I mean I’m leaving France. There’s just some stuff I got involved with, some really bad stuff.”_

            _“Like what? Are you doing drugs?”_ Eren’s voice rang with an incredulous tone.

            Bertolt looked wounded, his eyebrows scrunched up together. _“What? No. There’s just a lot of things going on in this city that you’re not aware of Eren, all starting with that guy you call dad.”_

            Eren’s eyes narrowed as he studied Bertolt’s face. Where the hell was this going? _“What’s that supposed to mean? I know my dad’s an ass sometimes Bertolt, but don’t think you can get away with insulting him like that.”_

            Bertolt shook his head as he put up his hands in defense. _“That’s not my intention. I’m just saying that your dad isn’t as clean cut as you think he is, nor your aunt or even your uncle. There’s a lot that they’re not telling you Eren.”_ Bertolt lifted his arms, to cup Eren’s face between his hands. He titled Eren’s head so that he was staring directly at his face. _“I and your friends are the only people you can trust Eren. There’s a lot your family doesn’t tell you, that I think you deserve to know. If you want to figure all of this out, you need to start looking at your own home.”_ Bertolt pressed a kiss to Eren’s forehead and quickly left the bathroom. Eren stood there, stunned and feeling just a little bit ill as he pressed his back against the cool tiles of the wall.

            Bertolt walked down the deserted hall as Reiner and Annie fell into step beside him.

            _“What do we do now?”_ Annie asked.

            _“We wait,”_ Bertolt replied, _“we wait…and hope that he does what’s right.”_

**October 2 nd (16:00 PM)**

            Eren walked through the front door. Bertolt’s words were still weighing on his mind as he slipped off his shoes and pushed them to the side with his foot. What the hell had he meant that his family wasn’t telling him things? What weren’t they telling him? Eren’s mind flashed back to the file Armin had sent him. Yeager’s murdered. His stomach felt like it was doing a thousand backflips inside of him as he wordlessly chewed on his lower lip. His eyes towards the door of his father’s office. He stared up at the ceiling. _“Dad?”_ He called out, only to be met with silence.

            He quickly moved towards the office door and placed his hand on the doorknob and turned it, the doorknob refused to budge even an inch. He didn’t know what he was hoping to expect as his father kept the door locked at all times. He needed to pick the lock. How did they do it in the movies? Eren rushed to the kitchen; pulling drawers open and slamming them shut until he found a tin of paper clips that his father kept in the kitchen just in case. He withdrew two and went about straightening them out. He returned to the door and bent down on one knee as he inserted the straightened paper clips and maneuvered them until he heard the soft click of the door. He placed the paper clips in his pocket and once more tried to turn the doorknob, but this time was met with success. The door swung open and Eren stepped into the room. The room was sparse save for a leather chair pushed into the corner of the room, a bookshelf was placed up against the wall next to it. There was a desk too, pushed up against the wall just below the window. A desktop computer and a wireless mouse were the only contents on top of the desk.

            Eren made his way to the bookshelf and lifted his hand up to the worn spines of the novels that rested between the planks of wood. He ran his fingertips along the spines of the books, looking over the titles as he went along. There were books on psychology and sociology, warfare and philosophy as well as a smattering of random books on a variety of subjects. There was no fiction novels whatsoever anywhere on the bookshelf. Eren’s fingertips brushed against a book titled _Plato’s Republic_. The books were tightly packed amongst one another like sardines in a tin can. He placed his left hand against the wood of the bookshelf for stability as his fingers gripped as much of the spine of the book as he could. He slowly pulled the book from the shelf as another book slid out and tumbled to the floor with a loud _thump_. The books on the shelf he just took Plato’s work from collapsed in on each other. He stooped down, placing Plato on the floor beside him as he took up the book that had fallen onto the floor. He peered at the dark cover of the novel. It was a book by Kafka, an author he doubted his father would even read. He opened the cover of the novel and was surprised to see a hollowed out section of the book and inside of it rested a key. It was a vibrant golden color that sparkled and shone in the dimness of the room, a thick leather cord was tied at the top of the key to form a makeshift necklace of sorts. Eren felt a churning in his gut as he withdrew the key from the book. It felt warm in his hand, like something that had always belonged to him, but had only just returned.

            What was this key for? Whom did it belong to? More questions seemed to be arising for Eren than answers. He slipped the leather cord over his neck and tucked the key underneath his shirt as he glanced at the computer. He went over to it and pulled out the office chair, plopping down in it, he booted the computer up. A password screen was the first thing to pop up. Of course what was he expecting? He typed in his birthday and pressed the enter key. An error sound chirped in the room as the computer returned him to the password screen, but this time with the message that he had 4 more tries left. He wondered if his father had set the computer up to delete anything that was on the hard drive if he failed to enter the correct password. Though that begged more questions of why.

            He slipped his phone out of his pocket and called Armin’s number.

            _“Hello? This is Armin.”_ His cheery voice responded to the call.

            _“Hey. Armin, it’s me. I need you to hack into a computer for me.”_

            He could hear the creaking of bed springs _, “sure. Just let me get to my computer first. Whose computer is this?”_

            _“My dad’s.”_

            There was a pregnant pause before Armin spoke. _“Why am I hacking into your dad’s computer? Eren is there something going on that you can’t tell me about?”_

            _“I can’t really talk about it right now. But I’ll defiantly tell you about it later over dinner or something. I have a lot of things I feel I’m going to have to tell you and Mikasa about.”_ As he spoke to Armin, the screen in front of him went pitch black for a few seconds and reappeared, this time on the computer’s actual screen with icons loaded on it as well. _“I don’t even want to know how you did that, but Armin you are a lifesaver and I will kiss you the next time I see you.”_ Armin’s laughter flooded into his ear.

            _“I’ll hold you on that.”_ Armin told him before he hung up the call.

            Eren’s hand gripped the wireless mouse as he hovered over the file icon in the taskbar. He clicked it and immediately went to the documents section. There were thousands of files named by date and random letters. He clicked through a random few, find nothing that was of interest to him as they seemed like business documents that his father would use for work and laden with jargon that he didn’t understand. Giving up, he pushed the chair away from the desk, but stopped when he noticed something was off about it. He got out of the seat and got down on his knees and noticed that the underside of the desk seemed off, he pressed his hand to the smooth wood and trailed his fingers around the edges. The desk had a false panel, he pressed on the wood and was surprised to hear something shift. Papers slid and fell out of a small opening between the false panel and the real desk that he hadn’t noticed before. He scooped them up and stared at the fading and crumbling newspaper clippings in his hands. The newspaper clipping recounted the murder of the Yeager family and the kidnapping of their young son, all stuff he already knew. Now intrigued, Eren wondered if the rest of the desk contained any hidden compartments as well. Eren pulled out the drawers feeling the bottom of them for something that was amiss. It wasn’t until he got to the last drawer in the desk did he find what he was looking for, a secret compartment in which a small box lay.

            He pulled the box out and opened it, with each item that he pulled out he became hyper aware of the tightness in his skin and the stillness of his heart. His hands were shaking as he shifted through birth certificates in multiple languages with his name on them. There was one for France, the US, Belgium, England, and various other countries as well. He put those aside as he rifled through the box again and picked up a folded piece of paper; it was folded so many times over that it was no more than a tiny little square. There was a series of numbers scrawled across the paper, 992009, with a file name written beneath it. Eren hopped back into the office chair as he quickly searched up the file name on the computer.

            It brought up an old email correspondence between his father and someone named E. He read over the correspondence in which it was revealed that Eren’s father was contacting this man to procure birth certificates from. Eren could feel his heart pounding in his chest as went through more of the correspondence finally stumbling across a video file that this mysterious E had sent his father. He clicked the video and he immediately wished he never had.

            The video was taken in a nursery, undoubtedly from a hidden nanny came of some sort placed up high in a decoration on the wall. The door to the nursery flew open as his mother rushed into the room quickly slamming the door shut behind her as she moved towards the crib, whipping out her cellphone and pressing it to her ear. Eren swallowed the lump in his throat as he could hear every little detail in the room.

            The door to the nursery shook as someone threw their bodyweight against the door. _“Carla! Open the door!”_ His father’s voice—and there was no denying that it was his father’s voice—shouted from the other side of the door.

            Eren’s grip on the chair tightened; his knuckles turned bone white.

            The door to the nursery fell with a crash as his father stepped into the room, the black gloss of the handgun in his father’s hand glinted like a beacon. His body seemed taught with panic as his mother screamed, her body shaking in fear. _“Carla? Carla? What’s going on? Carla, tell me what’s happening right now!”_ Eren could hear those words as if he was in the nursery himself. Eren barely noticed the tears streaming down his face as he watched his father raise the gun and point it at his mother’s chest. A single shot ran out and Eren looked away from the computer screen, too distraught to watch anymore of the video.

            He was so caught up in his emotions that he had barely heard the front door opening and shutting or the pattering of feet against the floor.

            _“What are you doing in here?”_

            Eren whipped his head to stare at his father. His silhouette illuminated by the hall lights, a stark contrast to the darkness of the office that was slowly getting darker by the minute as the sun was beginning to set over Nantes. His father’s voice was low, hoarse, and every bit as dangerous as the tone Eren had heard in the video. He felt like a noose was being fastened over his neck.

            _“Don’t make me repeat myself. What are you doing in here?”_ Levi’s eyes narrowed as they flickered to the computer screen. The scene that unfolded in the Yeager home unfolded over and over on the screen.

            Eren stood up from the chair. His eyes trained on his father and his father’s eyes on him, like two rabid dogs ready to leap at each other’s throat at any moment.

            _“You killed my mother,”_ Eren whispered, _“you murdered my parents.”_

            Levi took a step into the room. _“Eren.”_ He warned.

            Eren took a step back. His back bumped into the edge of the desk. _“Stay the fuck away from me.”_ His voice was interlaced with choking sobs, the tears spilt from his eyes a little faster, blurring his vision.

            Levi looked absolutely wounded. _“Eren we can talk about this,”_ He crept closer towards Eren. _“I just need you to listen to me.”_ Eren’s eyes darted towards the lit hallway. Levi must have known what he was about to do because he rushed forwards towards him. Eren lifted up his leg and planted a powerful kick to Levi’s stomach, throwing the older man off guard as Eren raced towards the hallway.

            The front door opened as soon as Eren step foot in the hallway. _“Levi!”_ Erwin called out as he and Hanji stepped through the door, the two of them looked absolutely startled as they saw Eren rush into the hallway, tears streaming from his face. Eren rushed towards Erwin and collapsed in his arms, his fingers digging into Erwin’s biceps.

            _“You have to help me!”_ Eren sobbed as Levi ran into the hallway. His eyes containing that same panicky look that they held in the video. Levi’s eyes darted from Eren to Erwin and Hanji. _“He kidnapped me and murdered my parents.”_ Eren blubbered as his fingers pressed harder into Erwin’s flesh.

            Eren titled his head up to look at Erwin. _No. No. No._ Eren released his grip, his blood going cold as he backed away from his uncle and aunt, who gazed at him with a pitiful look. They fucking knew. _“You knew?”_ Eren felt sick to his stomach, he wrapped his arms around himself, like that would somehow help him; save him for this desperate situation he found himself in. _“You fucking knew? This whole entire time?”_ Eren’s voice rose in incredulous anger.

            _“Eren.”_ Hanji stepped forward, her arms outreached towards him.

            He shrunk away from her touch. _“Don’t touch me.”_ He spat. He needed to get out of here. He needed to call Armin and Mikasa, or Bertolt. He needed to call anyone for help. He spun on his heels as a sudden and sharp pain in his neck bloomed, his legs went out from underneath him and he crashed to the wooden floor. Black spots danced at the edges of his vision as he could hear the sound of footsteps moving closer towards his body. He looked up to see his father standing above him, his face warped with sadness and his eyes gaunt and cold as if he had aged rapidly in a short amount of time.

            _“It wasn’t supposed to be this way.”_ Levi whispered.

            That was the last thing Eren heard before succumbed to the darkness.


	15. Untitled

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's another new month heralding the update I promised you guys. This chapter is much shorter than any of the previous chapters before and I think once you guys get to the end you'll realize why. Enjoy your day as well as this chapter!!!

**October 2 nd (20:00 PM)**

            He felt cold.

            Eren’s eyes slowly opened; the seashell whiteness of a bedroom ceiling was the first thing that he saw. His head felt groggy; he placed a hand on his forehead as he sat up in his own bed. Pain bloomed in his body like flowers under the spring sun, prodded by the delicate fingers of a gardener.

 _“You're finally awake.”_ Eren turned his head towards his bedroom door. The glare in his eyes and the scowl on his lips held so much animosity in it that Hanji stilled in her steps, her body rigid and taut like a cello string. Her voice was soft and Eren almost thought he could hear a tinge of remorse in her words. _“You must feel like you've been in a fight right now. The drug I gave you should wear off in a couple of hours.”_ Eren brought a hand up to his neck; underneath his fingertips there was a section of skin that was warm. She must have felt his concern because she offered him an explanation. _“Don't worry, the drug I gave you isn't lethal. It's harmless.”_ Hanji looked at him with a pitiful look in her eyes. She sighed _, “your father is pretty upset you know. We didn't expect for you to find out about...things this way.”_

 _“He's not my father,”_ venom dripped from Eren’s voice, _“my real father is dead. Remember?”_

            A flicker of emotion flared in Hanji’s eyes. _“What would you like for dinner?”_ She said in an attempt to lighten the mood and change the direction of the conversation.

            Eren turned his head, gazing out of the window to the large oak tree that grew outside of his room. _“I’d like for you to leave me the fuck alone.”_ He could hear Hanji sigh again before she walked out of the room; the door shutting softly behind her with no more than a hiss.

            It seemed like an eternity before his room door opened again. The moon was hanging lowly in the sky. The stars danced around it, free and uncaged unlike him. His stomach growled with hunger as the stew on the nightstand beside him went cold, untouched even after Hanji had delivered it. After she left he had tried to open the bedroom door, only to discover it had been locked from the outside. He thought to try climbing out via the window, but the moment he had opened it and peaked his head outside, Erwin’s face turned upwards towards the window as a glum smile stretched across his lips. Eren pulled his head inside and slammed the window shut.

            He didn’t have any means of escape.

            He scooted up the bed until his back touched the wall and his waist rested against the pillow, he pulled his knees up to his chest and rested his chin on his knees as the events of the day washed over him into a fruitless sleep. He awoke sometime later into the night. His room was covered in the pitch blackness of charcoal ink. The bowl of stew that rested on the nightstand just hours ago was gone. The thought of trying the door again quickly came into his mind, but he dismissed it knowing that they would have undoubtedly taken all precautions against him and kept the door locked. Even if he somehow managed to break out of his own room one of them might be guarding the door and all three of them might be somewhere in the house either downstairs or posted outside. He sucked air through his teeth and the thought of being treated like a prisoner in his own home. The home he had grown up in for 17 years built and surrounded by nothing but lies, but lies that he known as truth nonetheless.

            Shit.

            A sudden short series of rapid knocks on glass of his window startled him. He turned his head to the window, the night sky had dimmed some, but his eyes took time to adjust to the brightness that lay beyond his window. He cocked his head to the side at the person who was currently perched on the thickest branch of the tree outside of his window. The color red was startlingly clear under the rays of the moon and starlight, a red cap adorned his head- and he was sure it was a man from the silhouette- and as he moved ever so slightly on the branch, the faint sound of a bell ringing could be heard. The man knocked again on the window and Eren scooted up the bed to open it, the window magically flew open from an invisible touch as the man poked his head inside of Eren’s bedroom.

 _“Ho. Ho. Ho. Eren I heard you were in trouble and some people you know have been on my naughty list!”_ The man’s voice was tinged with joy as his cheeks turned ruddy with color.

_“Santa?”_

            Santa laughed again as he turned his head to stare at Eren, _“come. Come. We don’t have all day. We need to get you out of here.”_

            Eren confused at the sudden turn of events wasn’t going to disobey the man that had enraptured every child’s dreams. He stood up on the bed as the door to the room flew open, standing there was Hanji looking every bit as confused as Eren looked right now.

            Before he could even so much as say _“Merry Christmas!”_ Eren was pulled out of the room through the window by Santa. A scream rose and fell from his lips as they fell 2 stories below. Eren was shaking in his skin as they plopped down onto something hard, his butt stung from the impact as he felt warm flesh beneath his legs. He stared down at the silver skin of the horse and stared at the rainbow mane it possessed, perplexed he peered around Santa’s shoulder and was surprised to see a horn, the color of the moon, jutting out from the unicorn’s forehead.

 _“Shouldn’t you be riding on a reindeer?”_ The question slipped from Eren’s mouth as soon as it formed in his mind.

            Santa shrugged his shoulders _, “they don’t like it when you try and ride on their backs. A few elves have tried and well-”_ He trailed off as the back door to the house flew open. Eren turned his head to see Erwin, Hanji and Levi rushing into the back yard. They stopped in the middle of their tracks as they took in the unicorn and Santa and Eren perched on top of its back.

            Santa turned the unicorn around to face them.

 _“What the hell?”_ Levi voiced what everybody was thinking.

            Santa _tsked_ as he wagged a single finger in the air. _“Levi, you’ve been a naughty boy this year.”_

            The unicorn reared its head, its hooves kicking at the air. Eren grabbed at Santa’s coat before he slid off of the unicorn’s back.

 _“Don’t think I haven’t come prepared Santa!”_ Levi shouted as he pressed his index and thumb fingers against his lips and whistled.

            Feminine figures seemed to descend from the sky. Ten figures stood on the roof of the house as they hair swayed in a nonexistent breeze. Their leader stood near the edge of the roof, her long hair coming down to her feet and two buns wrapped up high on her head. The girl breathed deeply as she moved her arms around in the air as her fingers curled in on themselves to form rock and roll signs. _“Pretty Guardian of Love and Justice in a sailor suit! Sailor Moon has arrived! In the name of the Moon, I’ll punish you!”_ She crossed her arms over one another as she glared down at Santa.

            Eren wanted to punch himself in the face to make sure all of this was real.

            A deep growl came from Santa’s throat. _“Sailor Moon my arch nemesis. Tonight I will defeat you!”_ The unicorn reared itself again as its horn sparkled under the moonlight, a rainbow beam formed at the tip of its horn as it pointed it towards the direction of the Sailor Scouts. A great beam of rainbow color light launched from the unicorn’s horn towards the Sailor Scouts blasting them into the sky. Santa chuckled to himself as the unicorn launched itself into the air and started to gallop across the inky night sky.

            Levi’s voice pierced the sky as he yelled up towards the two as the unicorn climbed higher and higher in the sky before galloping away across inky dots.

            Eren was free. He was finally free.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So you've made it to the end! I'm planning to take a little break from this fic for awhile as I really need to get back to work on writing a novel that I've been planning for years and also making some outlines for some fics that I want to start after Web of Lies is finished. Please be on the lookout for the next chapter update!


	16. Distorted

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A new chapter is up! After what seems like more than a month! You guys are really going to love this chapter because it features bad ass Mikasa in action and Eren coming into his own, especially with all that happened in the previous chapters. I noticed that some of you guys were confused by the last chapter that I posted and didn't know weather or not it was a canon thing that was happening in this fic, but surprise! It was an April Fool's chapter!

**October 2nd**

            He felt cold.

            Eren’s eyes slowly opened; the seashell whiteness of a bedroom ceiling was the first thing that he saw. His head felt groggy; he placed a hand on his forehead as he sat up in his own bed. Pain bloomed in his body like flowers under the spring sun, prodded by the delicate fingers of a gardener.

            “You're finally awake.” Eren turned his head towards his bedroom door. The glare in his eyes and the scowl on his lips held so much animosity in it that Hanji stilled in her steps, her body rigid and taut like a cello string. Her voice was soft and Eren almost thought he could hear a tinge of remorse in her words. “You must feel like you've been in a fight right now. The drug I gave you should wear off in a couple of hours.” Eren brought a hand up to his neck; underneath his fingertips there was a section of skin that was warm. She must have felt his concern because she offered him an explanation. “Don't worry, the drug I gave you isn't lethal. It's harmless.” Hanji looked at him with a pitiful look in her eyes. She sighed, “your father is pretty upset you know. We didn't expect for you to find out about...things this way.”

            “He's not my father,” venom dripped from Eren’s voice, “my real father is dead. Remember?”

            A flicker of emotion flared in Hanji’s eyes. “What would you like for dinner?” She said in an attempt to lighten the mood and change the direction of the conversation.

            Eren turned his head, gazing out of the window to the large oak tree that grew outside of his room. “I’d like for you to leave me the fuck alone.” He could hear Hanji sigh again before she walked out of the room; the door shutting softly behind her with no more than a hiss.

            It seemed like an eternity before his room door opened again. The moon was hanging lowly in the sky. The stars danced around it, free and uncaged unlike him. His stomach growled with hunger as the stew on the nightstand beside him went cold, untouched even after Hanji had delivered it. After she left he had tried to open the bedroom door, only to discover it had been locked from the outside. He thought to try climbing out via the window, but the moment he had opened it and peaked his head outside, Erwin’s face turned upwards towards the window as a glum smile stretched across his lips. Eren pulled his head inside and slammed the window shut.

            He didn’t have any means of escape.

            He scooted up the bed until his back touched the wall and his waist rested against the pillow, he pulled his knees up to his chest and rested his chin on his knees as the events of the day washed over him into a fruitless sleep. He awoke sometime later into the night. His room was covered in the pitch blackness of charcoal ink. The bowl of stew that rested on the nightstand just hours ago was gone. The thought of trying the door again quickly came into his mind, but he dismissed it knowing that they would have undoubtedly taken all precautions against him and kept the door locked. Even if he somehow managed to break out of his own room one of them might be guarding the door and all three of them might be somewhere in the house either downstairs or posted outside. He sucked air through his teeth and the thought of being treated like a prisoner in his own home. The home he had grown up in for 17 years built and surrounded by nothing but lies, but lies that he had known as the truth nonetheless.

            Shit. How was he going to get out of here?

 

**October 5 th**

            The locker slammed shut with a ferocious bang. The student beside her who was leaning against the locker next to her making out with his current girlfriend for the week, jumped out of his skin and shot her a dirty look. The glare on her face that was enough to make a Russian soldier quiver in his boots, told him all that he needed to know. As he ushered his girlfriend away from the row of lockers. She angrily chewed on her lower lip as she stared down at the screen of her phone for what must have been the millionth time that day. There was a knot of worry that was forming in her throat; tightening up with each second that passed. Where was Eren? He hadn’t responded to the numerous texts she had sent him or her calls or even any of Armin’s messages. And he hadn’t shown up to school for the past few days which was highly unusual for him to do. It’s not like she could hunt down Bertolt and ask him either as he had moved out of the country all together a few days ago. No goodbye, no type of explanation. He just left and along with him so did Annie and Reiner as well. She knew there was something fishy about all three of them. Ever since she and Annie had that sparing match, she knew something was up. Annie’s movements were too…rigid. Almost militaristic in techniques along with the fact that even though she had attended their school, no one knew much about Annie or the others. They always kept to themselves and kept everyone else at a distance. Mikasa rapidly tapped her foot against the tiles of the floor. Something was up, she knew it. She glanced down the hallway as a Mme. Petra rounded the corner, her arms weighed down by the books she was carrying. She laughed at something Erwin said. Well if she couldn’t get her answers, then it was better to try another route instead.

            _“Monsieur Erwin!”_

            Erwin raised his brow as Mikasa came running towards him. _“Qui?”_ He glanced at Mme. Petra and nodded his head as she bid him goodbye and walked away to her class. _“Is there something wrong?”_

            Mikasa shook her head, _“no. Not exactly. Did Eren come to school today?”_

            There was barely a flicker of emotion across his face as Mikasa asked such a pointed question. Erwin’s lips stretched out into a thin smile. _“Classes are about to start soon Mikasa. Why don’t you run along?”_ She knew that his question wasn’t one, but a demand and a threat. The muscle in her jaw ticked in annoyance as Erwin walked away from her. She could hear the clack of his polished shoes against the cold tiles retreating into the distance.

 

            _“Mikasa!”_ Armin whispered harshly as she unlocked the gate. It swung open with disgruntled groan. _“We shouldn’t be here! What if something happens to us?”_

            Mikasa glanced at Armin, locks of her hair swung in front of her face and obscured her vision. She reached up and brushed the locks away from her face. _“You said that Eren was here when he last spoke to you right? Well we’re going to see if he’s here or not.”_ A sound of protest rose in Armin’s throat as Mikasa stepped onto the walkway and began to make her way to the front door of the Ackerman home. He heaved a sigh of frustration before slowly following after her. Mikasa climbed the steps up the porch until she reached the front door. She jabbed her index finger against the buzzer besides the door. A sweet, almost melancholy jangle of bells could be heard coming from inside of the home. The front door swung open, Hanji peered down at Mikasa and Armin. A smile stretched across her face, her cheeks so large that they resembled a chipmunk. _“Yes?”_ She cocked her head to the side as her gaze flickered from Mikasa to Armin.

            Mikasa smiled up at Hanji as her eyes narrowed at the sight of this tall woman. A thousand questions quickly filled the empty space in Mikasa’s mind. She peered over the woman’s shoulder to look inside of the empty and still house. Hanji’s eyes darkened a shade as she leaned against the framework of the door. _“Is there something you need?”_ Hanji said, now with a little more emphasis as she began to get distrustful of the girl and boy in front of her.

            _“Yes—”_ Mikasa began. She gestured to Armin and then herself, _“—we’re Eren’s friends. He hasn’t been in school recently and we’ve been getting worried—”_

            _“He’s not here.”_ Hanji abruptly cut the girl off with both her words and the burning glare in her eyes.

            The smile on Mikasa’s face began to falter as she was steadily growing frustrated by the demeanor and abrupt words of the woman before her. _“Well do you know where he is?”_

            _“Definitely not here.”_ Hanji retorted.

            The corner of Mikasa’s eye twitched in frustration. What was this woman trying to hide? The more time she stood there, the more Mikasa began to get suspicious of this woman’s behavior and actions. The air between Mikasa and Hanji began to thicken with tension as the two took to glaring at one another. The electricity and animosity between them was palpable enough for Armin to put a hand on Mikasa’s shoulder and whisper in her ear that they needed to go. Mikasa’s glare against Hanji intensified.

            _“I’ll be back.”_ Mikasa stated those words with a hard conviction before the front door of the Ackerman home was slammed shut in her face. With a hum of frustration, Mikasa spun on the heels of her feet and was descending down the front steps when she heard a soft _thump_ , like something crashing down onto a patch of grass. She stopped in her tracks, immediately exchanging a glance with Armin who had also heard the noise as well.

            Her eyes scanned over the perfectly trimmed lawn in front of her. Nothing was amiss, not even the bright colored flowers that lined the wrought iron fence. She slowly made her way down the porch steps, the wood creaking beneath her feet. She glanced over her shoulder at the tightly shut front door. She glanced at Armin again before stepping onto the lawn.

            Armin watched her make her pick her way across the lawn, before disappearing around the corner of the house. _“Armin!”_ Mikasa hissed, he could hear the fear in her voice. His heart was pounding in his ears as he raced off the porch and around the corner where Mikasa stood. Her spine was rigid. Her right knee was rested against the dew soaked grass and her head was bent down, looking at a bright colored object that rested in the grass.

            _“Mikasa? What is it?”_ Armin stopped, just a few inches away from Mikasa. He titled his head upwards, attempting to see what Mikasa was looking out at.

            Mikasa lifted her head, staring up at the window two floors above her. There was a sparkle of jubilation in her eyes. _“Eren’s here.”_

 

            Eren stared out the window, watching as Mikasa picked up the small object that he had just thrown out of the window. She and Armin glanced up at his bedroom window for a fraction of a second before taking off. He could hear the lock in his bedroom door turning and then opening. A pair of black, military boots creaked against the wooden floor boards. The bedroom door creaked in protest as it was shut.

            _“What are you doing?”_ Eren glanced in the direction of Levi’s voice, but kept his gaze fixed outside of his bedroom window. A thick silence spread between them, until Eren felt a dip in his bed and the creaking of his bedsprings. _“We need to talk at some point.”_ Eren continued to ignore him. The silence between them just growing and growing with every second passing them by. Levi turned his head and stared at his son for the first time in what seemed like an eternity. The dying light of the sun framed Eren’s face; surrounding him in a golden glow that that made it seem as if the painters of the renaissance had taken every second of their time to capture and imprint his perfect likeness on a blank easel. There was a rigidness in his jaw that Levi hadn’t seen before. His face looked older, everything about him looked older. Like overnight he had transformed from a boy to a man. And Levi was the cause of it.

            Levi’s gaze shifted away from Eren’s face, down to his hand. How many people’s lives had he snuffed out with both of these hands? How many grieving families had he left behind? Crying over the graves of their loved ones? A wry smile rose to his lips, he hadn’t even given Eren a grave to cry over; whisked him away from his family home, flown to another country and surrounded by falsehoods and lies that Levi had crafted for him. Why? So Levi could get the chance at playing father? Levi let his head fall against his chest, he thought he knew the reasoning behind his actions, but he truly didn’t. He robbed Eren of everything that he should’ve had. A mother and a home with her in it.

            _“Eren.”_ Levi’s voice cracked under the weight of his emotions. He slid his hand across the bed, grasping Eren’s own in his and squeezed it tightly.

            Eren pressed his tongue tightly against the roof of his mouth. The temptation to look back, to stare into Levi’s face was strong. It was tempting. And he almost gave in. Almost. But he kept his eyes fixed on outside of the window. He jerked his hand away from Levi’s touch.

            The bed dipped again, this time Levi turned his body so that he was facing Eren. He wanted to reach out for his hand again, but decided against it. _“Please…you have to listen to me.”_ His voice was soft; almost a whisper.

            Eren didn’t speak. A lump was forming in his throat.

            _“If I could—”_ Levi paused, his eyes darting back and forth from a spot on the floor to the back of Eren’s head, _“If I could go back and change everything that happened. I would. I loved being your father. I am your father. Nothing that happens now would change any of that. I’m sorry for everything that I put you through. For all the lies that I told. I’m sorry for everything, but—”_

            _“Shut up,”_ Eren said in a hushed tone. The edge of his voice sharp like a blade. _“Just shut up.”_ His words were steady and thorough, his arms trembling as his voice threatened to break underneath the weight of the tears he wanted to shed. He turned his to face Levi, his green eyes resembled two round orbs of cut emerald. His eyes were lightened by the fading rays of the sun and they twinkled with a mixture of resentment and misery. _“Do you think that anything you say to me right now makes up for what you did?”_ Eren crawled closer to Levi until their faces were a mere hairsbreadth away from each other. _“Nothing you could possibly say or do could get me to not feel the way I do about you now.”_

            For the first time in his life, Levi felt a chill run up his spine. Staring into Eren’s eyes was like staring at a mirror image of himself. Another shiver ran up his spine as he felt an invisible knife being pressed against his throat; it was sharp and he felt that it was dangerously close to the edge. It was just a matter of moments before Eren plunged it into his neck.

            Levi leapt from the bed, a hand flying to his throat. A bead of sweat dripped down the side of his temple. The pupils of his eyes were blown wide. A flicker of emotion bloomed in Eren’s eyes for a few brief moments but faded as quickly as it came. Levi’s eyes shot up to where Eren still sat on the bed. He swallowed thickly, before turning on his heels. He headed towards the door and threw it open. The door slammed shut behind him. The desk lamp and whatever items Eren had on top of his nightstand and dresser wobbled with the force in which the door was slammed, some of the items came crashing to the floor.

 

            Levi could feel his limbs trembling as his feet pounded down each step. His behavior must have concerned Hanji and Erwin because his right foot had barely even grazed the last step before they poked their head out into the hallway.

            “Levi? Is everything okay?” Erwin’s smooth voice bounced off the walls, the English words coming to his tongue as quickly as Levi had descended the stairs. His eyebrows were pressed together as Levi stormed into the kitchen.

            Erwin and Hanji fell into sync as they both followed after Levi in a hurry; suddenly worried that his sullen and gloomy behavior could lead to something self-destructive.

            Levi ripped open the cabinets, reaching in and grabbing a whiskey glass from one of the shelves before slamming it shut. He plunked the whiskey glass down on the counter with a thud that resonated throughout the marble.

            “Levi. What happened up there?” Hanji asked as she watched Levi reach beneath the cupboard underneath the sink to retrieve an unopen bottle of whiskey. It was saved for the most extreme circumstances, but Levi was opening it for tonight.

            Levi didn’t answer them as he poured himself a rather large drink. He pressed the glass to his lips and tilted his head back, letting the warm amber liquid slide down his throat. It was like a warm heat started on the tip of his tongue and bloomed into a scorching heat as it slid down his throat. The heat left a residual warmth in his cheeks and belly that slowly was beginning to disappear.

            “Levi!” Hanji stepped forward. Her concern for her longtime friend increasing as he refused to even acknowledge her or Erwin.

            “Get out.” Levi’s voice was gruff as he kept his back to his friends.

            Hanji’s face contorted into a look of confusion and alarm at Levi’s behavior and took a tentative step forward. Her pupils went wide as she quickly crouched low on the floor; the glass flew over her head and shattered against the wall. “Get out!” Levi roared, he could feel himself slipping further away from the calm and collected personality he had maintained in this line of business.

            Hanji looked absolutely hurt as Erwin stepped closer towards her, his hand wrapped around her arm as he gently pulled her up from the floor. He whispered something in her ear and she nodded, the muscles in her jaw tight with tension.

            It wasn’t until he heard the front door shut as the two of them left that Levi pressed the bottle of whiskey close to his chest. A strangled sob released itself from his mouth as he slowly sank to his knees. The bottle clutched so tightly against his chest that it almost seemed like he was trying to absorb the bottle itself. He bit his lower lip hard enough so that the coppery taste of blood filled his mouth as sobs continued to pour from his mouth like a flowing river.

**October 6 th**

            The air was frigid as the dark BMW silently cruised down the street. Its headlights were turned off and the windows of the car were nigh impossible to look into as they were whited out by the cold fall air from the outside. The heat on the inside of the car was cranked up as high as it possibly could go, but that didn’t stop Armin from shivering in the passenger seat. He rubbed his hands up and down his arms as he glanced over at Mikasa who staring ahead at the road. Her knuckles as white as the frosted car glass.

            _“Are you sure about this?”_ Armin asked, shivering a bit more.

            Mikasa was silent, but glanced over in Armin’s direction and he knew that was all the confirmation that he needed.

            The car slowly slowed down as they approached the Ackerman home. All of the lights were off and Armin could feel his heart pounding in his chest as Mikasa parked the car close to the home. She kept the engine running as she knew what the two were about to do wouldn’t take long and that they needed to get out of here as quickly as possible. _“Get ready.”_ She simply stated, as she pulled her scarf up so that it covered the lower half of her face. Armin bent forward as he pulled the hood of his hoodie over his head. It was two sizes too large for him, but the hood had enough room that it obscured the features of his face. The two nodded at one another as they got out of the warm car and were pelted by the frigid October air.

            Mikasa held up two of her fingers and pointed them in the direction of the house. Armin and Mikasa moved stealthy and silently towards the house. The gate squeaked loudly underneath Mikasa’s touch as she unlocked the gate and pushed it open. She waited as it felt like her heart lodged itself in her throat. When she noticed none of the lights turning on or the front door opening, she moved forward. The grass crunched under their feet as they tiptoed to the side of the house.

            She reached out and pressed her hand against the vine covered exterior of the home. The wet plant was cold and slimy beneath her fingertips as rounded the corner of the house; Armin following closely behind her. She crouched low to the ground as she reached inside of her pants pocket and pulled out her phone. She pulled up her flashlight app and turned it on, she positioned her phone so that the bright light shined into Eren’s bedroom. She tapped her phone, the bright light flickered off and on in what to others would seem like a random pattern. But when she and Eren were both young they had been engrossed in the charismatic zeal that spies possessed. They loved to watch the old Bond movies and for a period of time devoted themselves to learning Morse code. Mikasa tapped her phone screen a few more times before shutting her phone off.

            The window to Eren’s room slowly went up. Armin and Mikasa waited with bated breath as not a single soul seemed to exist within the dark room. Eren pocked his head outside of the window and looked down at his two friends. A dark Legend of Zelda hoodie was pulled over a thin shirt that he was wearing.

            _“Is anybody in the house with you?”_ Mikasa cupped her hands around her mouth and whispered up to him.

            Eren shook his head, tossing a quick look over his shoulder. _“I don’t know. Just get me out of here quick.”_

            Eren disappeared back into the darkness of his room, only to return a few seconds later. He grunted as he chucked a dark backpack out of the window; it was full of clothing and other necessities that he deemed necessary. Armin quickly moved under the window, grunting as the backpack landed in his arms. He quickly placed the backpack on the grass and reached inside the pocket of his hoodie to retrieve a thick bundle of rope. He tossed it to Mikasa, who uncoiled it and twirled the end of the rope in her hand, before tossing the end up to Eren above.

            He caught the end of the rope and dragged it to the head of his bed, where he tied a knot around the leg of his bed. He made sure the knot was tight, before moving to his window. He took a quick, deep breath before climbing out of the window; his hands gripping the rope tightly and his feet digging into the paneling on the side of the house. He slowly climbed his way down the side of the house, before he felt the grass crunch underneath his feet. He turned to look at his friends, a smile on his face. A strangled noise came from Mikasa’s throat as she launched herself at him, pulling him into a tight embrace as she buried her face into his neck. He could feel Armin wrapping his arms around him too. Hot tears coursed down all three of their cheeks as they pulled each other tighter in a three-way embrace. They laughed as each of them pulled away from the embrace. Mikasa wiped away her tears with the edge of her sleeve. _“Come on. Let’s get out of here before someone shows up.”_ Mikasa spun on her heels.

            Her eyes went wide as a fist smashed into the center of her face, sending her flying to the ground. Her scarf had slipped down, uncovering the lower half of her face. She looked down at the jacket she was wearing; thick droplets of blood covered the surface. She brought a hand up to her nose and used the back of it to wipe underneath her nose, a thick and bright streak of blood was smeared across the back of her hand. She glared up at the brunette female who had opened the front door of the Ackerman home.

            Hanji’s head was cocked to the side; her glasses on the tip of her nose. She peered down at Mikasa. Her eyes dark and as cold as a winter night as she slowly cracked her knuckles one by one. Her right knuckles were smeared with droplets of Mikasa’s blood. When had she appeared? Mikasa glanced over at Eren and Armin who were staring at the space behind this woman’s back. Their features were grim as a thick black shadow behind this woman suddenly seemed to appear out of nowhere. There was very little moonlight shining down as thick grey clouds rolled across the sky. The figure stepped closer towards Eren and Armin and Mikasa finally saw who it was.

            Thick, hot anger boiled in her veins. There was a sad smile on Erwin’s face as he looked down at Mikasa.

 _“I never wanted it to come to this. For any of you.”_ His voice was detached as he shifted his feet into a casual fighting stance.

 _“So you’re working with her now?”_ Mikasa shouted. She could feel her throat burning with every single word that was falling from her lips.

_“Mikasa. The answer to that question is more complicated than you can even begin to understand.”_

_“Eren! Armin! Run!”_ Mikasa quickly moved into action as she turned her upper torso so that her left cheek was pressed against the grass. Her palms were pressed flat against the grass on either side of her. She spread her legs apart and used all of her weight to spin on the grass. Her left leg connected with Hanji’s sweeping the brunette’s legs out from underneath her.

            Hanji fell onto her back; should could feel her teeth rattle in her skull as her head smacked against the wet grass. She briefly closed her eyes, jarring herself against the pounding pain that was blooming at the back of her head.

            Mikasa quickly jumped to her feet. She placed her legs a shoulder’s length apart and loosened her body as she let out a deep breath. She glared at Erwin whose stance matched her own. Her eyes narrowed as Erwin ran towards her. This looked like it was going to take a while.

            Eren quickly leapt to his feet, snatching his backpack from off of the ground. He gripped Armin’s arm in his hand, pulling him from off of the ground.

            _“We can’t leave Mikasa!”_ Armin shouted as he threw a glance at Mikasa who swung her hips, aiming a kick at Erwin’s head, only for it to be blocked by his arm. Erwin grabbed Mikasa’s leg with his other hand and twisted it so that she was forced to hop on her other leg to catch her balance; her back was turned to him.

            _“When Mikasa says to run. We run!”_ Eren bolted towards the car, dragging Armin behind him.

            Hanji groaned as she sat up in the grass. She watched as Mikasa seemed to concentrate most of her weight on the leg she was standing on and jumped in the air. Aiming a kick at Erwin’s neck in order to knock him to the ground. Her trajectory changed as Mikasa swung that leg over Erwin’s head. Her knee harshly connected with the ground as the rest of her body followed the momentum of her swing. Erwin found himself with his back pressed against the ground.

            Hanji growled as she pushed herself off of the grass and raced towards Mikasa. She jumped on her back and wrapped her arms tightly around the young girl’s neck. Mikasa gasped for air as she quickly straightened up. Her fingernails dug into Hanji’s arms as they seemed to press tightly into her flesh. Mikasa gasped for air as he fingers dug into the fabric of Hanji’s clothes, she leaned forward and threw Hanji off of her. Hanji landed on her back with a loud _oomf._ Before Hanji or Erwin even had time to get up Mikasa was running across the lawn like a panther chasing after its prey.

            Eren and Armin were already in the car. Mikasa jumped and slid across the hood of the car until her feet landed on the asphalt near the driver’s door. She threw open the door and got into the car. She put the car into drive and pulled away from the curb as quickly as she could; the tires squealed loudly and a trail of smoke emanated from the tires.

            Mikasa’s eyes shifted to the mirror above her as the car drove quickly down the street, she could see Hanji and Erwin in the distance; they were running after the car, but quickly becoming smaller and smaller the further the car got away from them. The trio in the car all released a breath they hadn’t realized they’d been holding. There was a certain air of sickening revelation that clung to all of them— no one could be trusted. That was for certain; no one but the three of them.

            Armin could feel his heart hammering in his chest; there was a bucket load of sweat covering his skin, but that didn’t stop him from feeling extremely cold. _“What are we going to do about school?”_

            Laughter burst to Mikasa’s lips at Armin’s question. _“We deal with one thing at a time. Right now we have to get Eren out of here.”_

            Eren who had been silent, slid his gaze to look up at Mikasa’s eyes in the rearview mirror. _“Where am I going?”_ He could see a fire blazing in her eyes.

            _“Somewhere safe,”_ Mikasa answered, _“somewhere safe.”_ Eren truly believed her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so happy to have reached this point in the fic because it marks the end of another arc. I have so much more in store for you guys that will probably leave you crying, angry, and a combination of other emotions and an ending for this fic that might leave some of you extremely upset. But don't worry the end won't be coming for awhile....or maybe it will?


	17. Motherland

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter ended up wildly different compared to how I originally planned for it to go, but I can thank Eren for that for pushing this chapter in a direction that I hadn't even devised of. 
> 
> This chapter doesn't really have that much plot development in it, but it's a nice break from the previous chapters that I've just been bombarding you guys with. So this chapter pretty much revolves around the trio as they come to term with some of the events that happened in the last chapter and Eren starts to examine his own feelings since he now has time to breath and really examine everything that happened so far. In other notes this chapter also features the trio finally leaving the country or well Eren leaving the country for the first time in his life to head to the beautiful city of Bilbao, Spain! Please read the end notes for more details about why the trio ended up in Bilbao.
> 
> I feel like I don't really mention often how much I'm super grateful towards everyone who decided to give this fic a chance or who stuck around since the beginning and I'm really grateful that you guys decided to even stick around for so long, it really means a lot to me. I've also been rereading The Intern by Lutte which is an explicit Ereri fic and its an amazing fic that I wholeheartedly recommend that you read considering it's my number one favorite fic on this site. Lutte is a huge inspiration for me and I've been finding myself growing stronger as a writer everyday thanks to her.

**October 6 th**

            Armin wordlessly opened the front door to his dark home as Mikasa and Eren followed in silently after him. His fingers brushed against the wall to his left as he attempted to find the light switch, he flipped it on and all three of them blinked as the hallway was suddenly flooded with bright luminescent light.

            All three of their stomachs rumbled in hunger and Armin simply motioned for them to follow him as they headed towards the kitchen. He flipped on the light too and Mikasa and Eren moved towards the circular kitchen table where they pulled out the chair and took their seats. Everything about the Alert home sang of a sense of warmth, the kitchen walls were painted a sea green and the tiles on the floor had a slightly creamy tone to them. The appliances in the kitchen had an antique feel to them, but that looked used and loved for.

            Armin made his way to the kitchen and opened a ziplock bag on the side of the fridge that was held up by a magnet, he pulled a pamphlet for a local 24 hours pizza place out from the ziplock bag. He shook the pamphlet. _“Anybody want pizza?”_

            Mikasa fiercely shook her head as she crossed her arms over her chest. _“We’re not getting pizza. We don’t know who we can trust and who definitely isn’t getting paid off.”_

            Eren raised his brows as he rested his chin in the palm of his hands. Mikasa had a point, a very great one at that. All three of them knew very little about how wide the net his father had casted was or many people were connected to it. They had to lay low—should lay low, but Eren had his freedom back. It tasted like sugar on his tongue. _“Mikasa. It’s not going to kill us if we order a pizza tonight. I haven’t eaten in a few days and I would like to enjoy my freedom with you guys.”_

            He watched her briefly close her eyes before exhaling through her nose. _“Fine,”_ she relented.

            Eren and Armin both shot her a quick smile as Armin walked over to the landline phone that was mounted on the wall near the entrance of the kitchen. He picked up the landline and dialed the number of the pizza shop, it rung a few times before someone answered and Armin started to give them his order.

            Mikasa slid her hand across the table and grasped Eren’s hand in her own before giving it a squeeze. There was concern in her eyes that posed a wordless question that Eren knew he needed to answer.

            Eren shrugged his shoulders as much as he was trying to convince his friends that he was fine, they weren’t fully believing it. He felt tired and old; everything that had happened these past few days had just sucked all the energy out of him. It felt like the events of the past few days were finally catching up with his body. His limbs felt heavy and there were dark circles and bags underneath his eyes. _“I-I don’t know how I should be feeling right now.”_ Eren answered truthfully, there were parts of him that felt so…conflicted.

            Mikasa didn’t say anything. There wasn’t anything she could say to Eren that would comfort him. She just squeezed his hand again as Armin hung up the landline phone and moved over to the table where he took the last empty seat.

            They chatted about everything and anything to fill up the silence and Eren was grateful for that. He knew they were trying to keep him from thinking about anything that happened in this last few days as they filled him in on tales of Sasha getting yelled at by the lunch ladies for piling several plates high with baked potatoes or Connie sleeping in the middle of class only to wake up with a face full of sharpie. Laughter burst forth from their chests and time seemed to fly by.

            The front doorbell rang and with it their laughter died; a quiet tension filled the room. Mikasa’s chair scraped against the floor as she pushed it back and wordlessly glanced at Eren and Armin. She moved silently to the front door, using the peephole to see out onto the porch, she opened the door a fraction of an inch and nodded her head as she began talking to the delivery guy. Three seconds later he was paid and the smell of pizza filled the kitchen.

            Tears nearly fell from Eren’s eyes as he bit into his slice of pizza—pepperoni, sausage, beef, mushrooms, green peppers, a blend of 3 cheeses and a drizzle of balsamic sauce—it was heaven dancing on his tongue and he never wanted the feeling to go away.

            He could hear Armin snicker besides him around a mouthful of pizza. _“Eren, are you okay?”_ Armin was trying to stifle his laughter as he chewed slowly on his pizza.

            Eren nodded his head as he devoured his slice of pizza and then reached into the pizza box for another one.

            Less than half an hour later the pizza box lay empty except for streaks of grease and melted cheese. Eren was resting in his chair, content with the silence and his belly full of food.

            _“What do we do now?”_ Armin’s voice broke the silence.

            Mikasa’s chair scooted back against the tiled floor as she pushed herself up out of her seat. _“We get some rest. Eren you’ll stay here since it’s safer with Armin.”_

            Concern flashed across Armin’s face. _“Mikasa. What do we do about school? We have to go tomorrow!”_

            Mikasa and Eren’s eyes widened in disbelief they weren’t certain if Armin’s question was serious, but knowing their friend it certainly was.

            _“We’re not going to school. I’ll come here around 8 in the morning.”_ Mikasa adjusted the top of her scarf before wiggling her fingers at Eren and Armin in a gesture of goodbye. They both could hear the front door screeching shut a few moments later.

            _“We should probably get some rest,”_ said Armin as he too pushed his chair away from the table and started to grab the dirty plates and glasses from off of the kitchen table. Eren pushed his chair and too and went about helping Armin clean up the kitchen.

            A few minutes later Armin flipped the light switch for the kitchen; the dishes were drying in a rack and both Eren and Armin were tired from the events of the day. Their feet felt heavy to them as they wearily climbed the steps towards the second floor and then Armin’s bedroom.

            Armin released a heavy yawn as he nudged his bedroom door open with his foot and turned on the light, he headed towards his dresser where he pulled out a loose white t-shirt and blue plaid pajama pants for Eren to wear. He tossed them over towards Eren and the boys went about stripping themselves out of their clothing and changing into pajamas. Eren tossed his clothes into the hamper that was near the door and laid down on the large king sized bed Armin had pushed up against the wall. Armin turned off the light and crawled into bed beside Eren. As his blond locks rested on the pillow beneath his head, soft breathing came from his mouth as his chest rose and fell as he quickly was captured by sleep.

            Eren had his hands resting on his lower stomach, fingers laced together as he lay on his back and peered into the pitch black darkness. His heart was hammering in his chest as he could feel the minutes passing by, Armin’s breathing was drowned out by the own sound of his heart beating loudly in his chest. Sleep alluded him like a lover who he was constantly chasing after, but could never quite grasp between his hands. His chest suddenly felt tight, so incredibly tight as the darkness around him seemed to push down on him. He could feel the phantom pain of needles sinking into the surface of his skin and storm cloud colored eyes peering deeply into his own. He quickly sat up in the bed; his breath labored and his skin slowly breaking out into a thin sheen of cold sweat.

            He pulled his knees close to his chest as he turned his head to stare at the neon green numbers shining brightly on the digital clock that rested on the edge of Armin’s desk. It was 2 in the morning. He shifted his gaze away from the clock as he wrapped his arms around his knees and sat there in the darkness, alone with his thoughts yet again as he had been for the last several days since his confinement to the house.

            Questions were burning in his throat as nothing these last few days had made sense to him. The betrayal from the people he had placed all of his trust in felt like a stab to the heart. To know that Hanji, Erwin and Levi. The people he had called family, had betrayed him in a way unimaginable to him hurt so badly. His heart thumped painfully in his chest as if to illustrate his thought. They were strangers to him, he knew nothing about them as much as he knew very little about himself or the mother and father that he had been snatched away from in the German countryside seventeen years ago. He could barely stomach the thought of even mentioning the word father as it brought jolting thoughts of Levi into his mind. The image of his mother’s face flashed in his mind as Eren suddenly remembered the backpack he had brought with him. He silently unwrapped his arms from around his knees and stretched his legs out as he slid out of the bed. His bare feet touched down on cold wood. He placed his hand against the wall as he stood up and padded into the hallway, before making his way down the steps in the dark. He breathed softly as he made his way down to the first floor hallway. He waved his hands in the empty space before him until he bumped his knee into an end table in the hall. A string of muttered curses left his lips as he bent down and turned the knob for the electric lamp.

            The tendrils of darkness retreated as soft, eggshell colored light came from the rose painted lamp. The bulb in it shone brightly as Eren walked a few short steps to the entryway where he had tossed down his backpack when he walked into the home. He kneeled down on the dark wooden floor and bent his head forward as if in prayer as he unzipped the small compartment that was on the front of the bag. Gold metal glinted as it was exposed from the darkness into the soft light.

            Eren reached into the small space and gripped the leather cord between his fingers before pulling out the gold key from his backpack. He brushed his thumb over one of the rounded edges of the diamond handled key before taking the leather cord and slipping it over his neck. The key fell against his chest, the tremor in his chest started to slow down and he felt mellower than he had been these last few hours. He brought his hand up to the key again and gripped it in his fist. The cool metal was like a soothing balm in his hand as he stood up from the floor, he released his grip on the key and bent down to zip the bag back up. He moved towards the end table and shut off the lamp before making his way back upstairs towards Armin’s room. He crawled back into the bed and placed his back against the wall. He slowly blinked; the darkness of the room was no longer a grim entity. His limbs felt relaxed as the minutes on the clock went by. He blinked again…and then once more, before he shut his eyes and fell into a dreamless sleep.

 

            The sun shone brightly through the windows of Armin’s bedrooms as the house creaked and groaned under old age. The air was chilly as fall seemed to be greeting France every day with temperatures colder than the day before. Armin stretched his limbs as he nuzzled his head further into the pillow, he moaned contentedly as the joints in his body popped. He slowly opened his eyes, squinting as the early morning light shone directly on his eyes. Armin slowly pushed himself upright in the bed and twisted his body to glance over at Eren. He nearly lept out of the bed as Eren’s emerald green eyes stared directly into his.

            Armin groaned as he pressed a hand against his face. _“Eren. I just had a heart attack because of you.”_ He removed his hand from his face and blinked blearily before pushing his bangs away from his face.

            Eren smiled apologetically as he shifted away from the wall and stretched, his back popped in several different places as the key around his neck jangled with his movements.

            _“What time is it?”_ Armin groaned as he let his head fall back onto his pillow.

            _“Almost 7.”_ Eren answered as he slid out of the bed.

            _“Did you even go to sleep?”_ Armin groaned as he sat back up and pushed himself out of bed, he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

            Eren nodded his head as he stretched; swinging his arms above his head and pressing his toes into wooden floor beneath his feet. Eren went out of the room and disappeared, only to reappear a few seconds later with his backpack in tow. Half an hour later, both of them were freshly showered and changed into fresh clothing. Armin had slipped on an orange “Camp Half-Blood” t-shirt and a pair of dark blue jeans and Eren had just grabbed a plain blue t-shirt from his backpack and a pair of jeans and threw it on. By the time they had reached the bottom of the stairs Mikasa was already knocking on the front door.

            _“Want some breakfast?”_ Armin offered her as she shut the front door behind her.

            _“Yes, please. I’m starving.”_ Mikasa smiled as she rubbed her hands together and followed Armin and Eren into the kitchen.

            Armin must have been incredibly because he went all out in making breakfast. The kitchen table soon became piled high with various foods: strawberry pancakes, English muffins, fruit salad, bacon, smoked sausages, scrambled eggs and more food than Eren or Mikasa had ever seen placed on the table before.

            Armin was wiping his hands on a dishtowel as his grandfather came down into the kitchen. Eren and Mikasa bid him good morning as he turned his attention to Armin.

            _“Armin, why aren’t you at school?”_

            Armin’s eyes bulged in his head as he shot a quick look at his friends. He hesitated for a few moments as the gears in his brain churned; attempting to come up with a plausible lie. _“Uhhh…there’s a huge rat infestation at school so they cancelled classes until everything’s sorted out?”_ A drop of sweat dripped down Armin’s temple. Armin, Eren, and Mikasa’s heart were pounding in their chest as they hopped Mr. Alert bought the lie.

            Armin’s grandpa nodded and Armin let out an audible sigh of relief as Eren shot him a quick thumb’s up. _“I’ll get you a plate,”_ Armin told his grandfather as he rushed around the kitchen and started to get him a plate of breakfast foods before sending his grandfather out to the living room.

            Armin took a seat at the kitchen table and started plucked up an English muffin before slathering butter and jam onto it.

            Eren jabbed his fork into one of the sausages, he moaned as he bit into it. _“Armin, I swear, I’m going to marry you so hard.”_ Armin snickered as Eren continued to eat the sausage straight off the fork.

            _“How are you holding up Eren?”_ Mikasa asked— the second time she had questioned him on his emotional state—as she stabbed her fork into one of the strawberry pancakes before sliding it onto her plate.

            Eren shrugged as he ladled eggs onto his plate and grabbed a piece of bacon before biting into it. He chewed slowly, _“good I guess.”_ His friends looked at him with concern written all over their faces as he speared a few bites of scrambled eggs onto his fork before shoving the fork into his mouth. He was doing good, that was the truth. He’d been doing and feeling better than he had been in the last few hours. But there was a knot of worry twisting in his stomach right now, a knot of worry telling him that he didn’t have the right to be happy and joyful or even grateful for being with his friends right now.

            He could feel Armin and Mikasa’s hands touching the back of his own in a warm gesture. He sighed deeply, before placing his slice of bacon down onto his plate. _“Ok…I’m not really…doing so great.”_

            _“You know you can talk to us about how you’re feeling. We’re your friends.”_ Armin offered in consolation as he zoned in on the pancakes.

 _“I feel,”_ Eren started, _“scared?”_ He pursed his lips. It felt like the wrong word to describe how he was feeling, but it was the only word he knew right now to describe the trembling in his chest. The fork in his hand felt cold to him, like it was sucking out all the heat in his body. _“I just—why hasn’t anyone come after me yet? It feels so strange to even be sitting with you guys for breakfast. It’s been hours and the longer I stay here, the longer I get worried that something’s going to happen to me...or worse you guys.”_ Eren lowered his head.

            The loud sound of a plate dropping onto the floor caused Eren to jump in his seat. His eyes were blown wide in his head as Armin dashed up from his chair and into the living room to check on his grandfather. The muscles in his body felt taught like a string on an instrument and he could feel himself shaking. He knew Mikasa was staring at him with a worried look on her face, but all that concern and worry from his friends just made his stomach churn.

            The taste of bacon in his mouth that was once pleasant now tasted bitter and acidic. Mikasa placed her hand on Eren’s cheek as Armin walked back into the kitchen. Her hand was like a beacon to him. The steady warmth of her body calmed him down, he could feel the shaking in his limbs slowing and the erratic beating of his heart slowing down to normal.

 _“Eren.”_ Eren looked up at Mikasa. _“Armin and I can handle ourselves. I don’t know if you saw me kicking Erwin and Hanji’s asses back there, but I’m more than capable of taking down a couple of people if you need me to. Armin and I will always have your back, so don’t feel terrified to even tell us how you truly feel. We won’t hate you for it, we’re your friends and that’s what friends do—listen to you cry your heart out when you’ve reached your lowest point.”_

            Eren was sniffling as he wiped away the tears that were leaking from his eyes with the back of his hand. _“I love you guys so much,”_ Eren mumbled through his tears as he pressed his hands to his eyes.

            Armin picked up his toast and began to eat and the trio slowly made their way through the mountain of food with laughter and joyful tears chasing after them. After the last bite of bacon was consumed and the last forkful of scrambled eggs was slipped between open lips, they set out to planning.

_“Eren, we can’t keep you hold up in Armin’s house forever.”_

            Eren rolled his eyes. _“I’m pretty certain Mr. Alert wouldn’t mind having another grandson.”_

            Mikasa cracked a smile before trudging on. _“Besides that. Someone is bound to come looking here or at my home for either one of us and it’s not for a good reason. We don’t know what plans Hanji, Erwin or Levi have in store for us so we need to come up with something.”_

            They sat in silence for a while as each of their brains where churning to come up with a solution to their dilemma. _“We could go to Spain.”_ Eren offered up after mulling over his thoughts for a while.

            Armin and Mikasa raised their brows. _“Why?”_

            Eren twirled his fork in his hand as he attempted to piece his thoughts into words, _“well my mom is from there and I just thought that I could visit the country and get to know her better.”_

 _“Eren,”_ Armin’s gaze settled on his friend, _“how are you going to get to Spain if you don’t have a passport?”_

            Eren stopped twirling his fork. _“I was going to steal Jean’s family, saddle them up and ride them all the way to Spain?”_ Mikasa choked on the water she was sipping before lightly smacking the back of Eren’s hand.

            Mikasa placed her glass of water down before speaking, _“Armin.”_ His name was apparently all she needed to say because his face fell as his gaze quickly darted between Mikasa and Eren and then back to Mikasa again.

 _“Ugh,”_ Armin bemoaned, _“we’re so going to get arrested for this.”_

 

            Eren looked down at his hands; clutched between them was his own passport, the red leather felt like a religious tome sitting in the palm of his hands. He ran his thumb over the gold lettering at the top: _Union européenne; République française_. The European Union and Republic of France. He felt so giddy that he was tempted to run out into the streets with his passport and shout at the top of his lungs into the sky. The neighbors probably would have been concerned—definitely would have been concerned about why a teenage boy was running in the streets of Nantes shouting like a lunatic.

 _“I’m going to go to jail for this.”_ Armin muttered as he slipped his gold covered credit card back into the confines of his wallet. He had just bought the trio a pair of tickets to Spain; the earliest tickets that he possibly could have gotten for the day on such a short notice and the flight left in roughly 4 hours. The seats were first class; paid for by the courtesy of Armin himself who had enough money stored away from his parent’s death that he was pretty much set for life. Eren’s backpack, including four suitcases and a carryon were tucked into the corner of Armin’s room. Seeing as how Eren hadn’t brought much clothing with him, Mikasa had taken the boys shopping to get a few clothing items to wear while on their trip to Spain. They had also bought him a pair of suitcases and a new phone as well.

 _“I’m pretty certain you’ve done worse than this.”_ Mikasa bluntly stated as she picked up one of the suitcases to carry it out to the car.

            Armin pouted as he unzipped his carryon bag and stuffed his laptop and charger into it before zipping it back up. _“I haven’t.”_ He stilled as his firm grip on the zipper of his carryon remained. _“Okay, maybe I have. But none of them would have landed me in federal prison for committing forgery!”_

            Mikasa rolled her eyes as she carried the suitcase out to the hallway. _“I’m pretty certain that if the cops come to arrest you Armin, you’ll go down for more than just simple forgery.”_

            Armin gulped as his grip on the zipper slackened.

            The trio were pulling up to the parking lot of the Nantes airport a few hours later after telling Armin’s grandfather an excuse that the school had sprung a last minute trip on its students that would take them out of the country for a few days. The old man had bid them to stay safe and healthy and they were out the door. Eren’s eyes were wide as Mikasa parked her car.

            It was the first time he had ever seen an airport much less been a few meters away from one. The entire building was all glass and sleek lines. The glass that ran along the outside of the building reflected the color of the sky as the rumbling of plane engines shattered the air around them. Eren’s mouth must have apparently been open for him because Mikasa reached over and pushed his jaw up until his teeth clattered together.

            Eren was like a kid in a candy store as Mikasa and Armin found a trolley to load all their luggage onto. They walked across the street and headed inside the airport, a blast of cold air hit Eren in the face as the glass doors slid apart, revealing to him thousands of people making their way throughout the airport as announcements were made over the speakers for last calls or stragglers who had yet to show up to their designated terminal. They checked in their luggage and the trio made their way through security, which took quite a bit of goading and comforting reassurances for Eren to go through.

            They were on the plane in the blink of an eye with Armin and Mikasa sitting in their own personal seats a few centimeter’s away from him. There were 2 other people in the cabin beside them and the 2 flight attendants. Soft classical music played overhead as one of the flight attendant’s appeared by his side with a champagne glass and a can of soda. The plane was starting to take off and Eren was gripping the arms of his seat so tightly that his knuckles were bone white. He swallowed thickly as the plane started to move.

            Roughly 5 hours later, the plane touched down in Bilbao, Spain and the first thing Eren did with his first time in a new country was finding the nearest trashcan to empty the contents of his stomach in. Mikasa tapped him on the shoulder with a bottle of water that she had purchased from the nearest store in the airport. He accepted in gratefully and cracked it open before taking a swig of water.

            They grabbed their luggage and put it onto another trolley before stepping outside of the airport. They hailed a taxi and when all their luggage had been placed into the trunk they hopped into the taxi. Their taxi driver was a friendly old woman who spoke fluent French from the years she had spent in the country. It was an hour drive to the actual city of Bilbao seeing as the airport was on the outskirts of the city.

            The city of Bilbao was far more beautiful than the trio ever could have possibly imagined. A huge river snaked through the middle of town; moonlight and the twinkling of the stars shone across the surface of the river as if the surface of it was made out of glass. The city was a kaleidoscope of colors that filled the night. Blues, purples, greens and thousands of other colors flashed by them as the taxi traveled over a bridge.

            The city was a hubbub of nightlife, art, and beauty all wrapped into one. It was breathtaking. They could hear lively singing accompanied by the sounds of Spanish guitars, their taxi passed by plenty of groups enjoying the nightlife through dancing, food, drinks and companionship. Eren’s heart was pounding in his chest to the same rhythm of the music he could hear playing from outside of the taxi. It felt like the music was dancing though his veins and spread from his toes to his fingertips. He felt like he was part of the city, born into in and was just returning home. He possibly couldn’t even conceptualize why his mother had ever decided to leave such a vibrant and colorful city.

            Their taxi finally pulled up to a colorful hotel near the river. There was a hand painted sign above the entryway painted in rainbow letters: _espero_. Eren wondered what it meant since he had never encountered a word like that before in Spanish. The trio got out of the taxi and thanked the old woman before leaving her with a huge tip.

            They made their way into the hotel lobby. It was brightly lit and full of vibrant flowers. The trio wheeled their luggage to the check-in desk. A young woman smiled brightly at them as Eren opened his mouth ready to speak to translate whatever his friends needed to say to her. He faltered as his brows scrunched together when she spoke quickly in a language that was unlike anything that he had ever heard. It sounded both French and Spanish, but unlike either of the languages as well. His brain was still boggled down by confusion as she switched over to Spanish.

            They were riding up the elevator with all of their luggage after getting checked in. The elevator flew past floors. 18. 19. 20. Until they reached the 21st floor where their room was located.

            A gasp of awe came from Eren and Armin’s lips as the trio stepped into the room. The room was huge! A large suite that had two rooms, two bathrooms and a combined kitchen and living room area with a flat screen television. An entire wall of the living area was taken up by a row of floor to ceiling windows that gave them a great view of the river. There were two twin beds in the first bedroom and a single king sized bed in the other bedroom. Armin and Eren took the first bedroom and gave the second bedroom to Mikasa.

            Eren groaned contently as he collapsed onto his bed. He groaned contently as he rolled onto his stomach further sinking into his cloudlike bed. He glanced over at Armin’s bed only to see his chest and rise and fall as he drifted off to sleep. He snorted as the events of the day started to settle into his bones. He could feel himself sinking further and further into the bed until sleep welcomed him with open arms.

**October 10 th**

            Eren sunk his teeth into the freshly made churro; powdered sugar coated his lips, his tongue darted out from between his lips to lick the sugar off of them. He was seated on a low wall that gave him a perfect view of the houses lining the entire street. The bicycle he had rented was pushed up against the wall beside him. A warm wind suddenly picked up; his shirt rustled as the wind blew. Mikasa licked remnants of sugar off from her fingers, before standing up from the wall and wiping her hands on her jeans. Eren and Armin quickly ate off their churros before all three of them hopped back onto their bikes.

            They were in a suburban section of the city. Low single homes—all red tile roofs and white facades—stretched for as far as the eye could see. Shouts of children playing in the suburb was carried on the light breeze. Even though it was technically fall, here the weather felt more like spring. Eren wore a loose shirt and a pair of shorts as he pedaled down the sidewalk. The locals were out and about either chatting with their neighbors or watering the vibrant flowers that lived in their garden.

            Mikasa and Armin were pedaling behind him as he slowed down. There was a house a few meters away from him. An older looking man was out in his front yard, watering down his flowers with the hose in his hand. The sunlight bounced off the bare skin of his bald head. It felt like time was slowing down as the stream of water pouring out of the house trickled down to a few dribbles, the man turned his head to stare at the trio as they leisurely pedaled down the street on their bicycles. Eren could make out the individual characteristics on his face. He was tall, there were prominent wrinkle lines on his forehead and dark sunken gold eyes that complimented the slight tan color of his skin. Recognition seemed to flash in his eyes as the hose dropped from his hand and hit the grass beneath him with a dull thud.

            A jolt of electricity shot up Eren’s spine as the man opened his mouth and uttered something that Eren never expected to hear.

            “Eren?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The city of Bilbao, Spain takes places in a region of Spain called the Basque country. The Basque country is quite different from the rest of Spain since many native Basques speak the Basque language and Spanish as well. Basuqe is unlike any other language I've ever heard before and originally I never planed to make Eren's mother's hometown the city of Bilbao, but somewhere else in Spain. However Eren decided that it would be best if he nudged me along to make a different decision and of course a friend that I made during my first year of college who's who was originally from the Basque country definitely influenced me as well. The city of Bilbao is beautiful, both during the day and during the night and I recommend you look up pictures of the city to get an inkling of what the trio must have been feeling when they saw the city.
> 
> I also recommend that you look up the song Anne Etchegoyen, Le Choeur Aizkoa - Hegoak (Les ailes) as it's the basis of the song that I had in mind that the trio was listening to playing throughout the city during their taxi ride. It's a song sung in Basque and it's quite beautiful to listen to.


	18. Family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A new chapter! And new problems that arise for the trio! Please remember to subscribe, give this fic kudos and leave a comment!
> 
> Also Spanish Cavalier dogs are the cutest dogs on Earth! And Cloe is a name I really want to give one of my future dogs.

**October 10 th**

            _“Eren?”_

            Eren’s feet slipped off the pedals of his bike and onto the sidewalk below him. Mikasa and Armin were at his sides faster than he could even blink. Mikasa’s mouth was set in a determined line and her eyes were wide with distrust as she tugged at Eren’s sleeve. Eager for him to put his feet back on his pedals and pedal out of this neighborhood as quickly as possible.

            The man must have sensed the trio’s uneasiness towards him as Eren was on the edge of deciding whether or not to flee. He rushed towards his gate and unlocked it, before stepping out onto the sidewalk. The man spoke to him I Spanish, _“please, wait! Don’t leave!”_ He stood in front of Eren and looked him over from head to toe with a pained and hopeful expression written all over his face. _“Is your name Eren?”_

            Eren’s gaze danced between Mikasa, Armin and this stranger standing in front of him. He could feel Mikasa’s gaze burning onto his skin as she and Armin were eager to be far away from this man and this suburb as quickly as their bikes could take them. They were warning him not to say anything, to tell this man no, he had the wrong person so they could be on their way. Eren’s stomach was twisting into knots as he his brain flittered between thoughts that he was harmless or that somehow this man standing before him was connected to Levi in some way. A trap meant to lure him back to France and send him back presenting his own head and the head of his friends on a gilded platter.

            His eyes shifted from the man standing in front of him then to the empty street beside him. It would be so easy for him, to simply place his feet back on the pedals and pedal away. So easy for him to ignore this man standing right in front of him. So absolutely easy for him to just forget about this brief moment in time…but he didn’t choose any of that.

            Eren took a deep breath and slowly nodded his head. _“Yes,”_ he breathed out, like he was riding himself of a 17 year-old secret.

            Eren’s eyes widened in surprise as he found himself gripped up in a surprisingly tight hug. The man had his arms wrapped around him and his face pressed into Eren’s hair, his breath ruffled the hair on top of Eren’s head as he repeated a single phrase over and over. _“I finally found you. I finally found you.”_

            The man’s entire frame trembled as Eren could feel droplets tears dripping down the side of his face. Eren’s entire body was trembling as he lifted his own arms and wrapped them around the man before him as tears were brimming in his own eyes.

 

            _“I don’t know exactly what teenagers like and I wasn’t expecting company today.”_ Keith stated as he placed down three cans of orange soda and a package of double stuffed Oreos on the kitchen table before the trio.

            The kitchen was a sea of cream and sandy red’s that matched the façade of the house. Eren could smell the faint scent of cinnamon and other spices he couldn’t name. The kitchen was lit up by a ceiling fan above his head that seemed to wash everything it touched in another layer of cream coloring as well.

            Eren shook his head, _“this is fine.”_ He told Keith in Spanish. Armin and Mikasa understood the language as well from having to take compulsory Spanish classes at school. He opened the package of Oreos and took one before biting into it, filling his mouth with chocolatey goodness.

            Keith took the only seat left at the kitchen table. The one directly across from Eren. He stared in stunned silence at him for a while. _“My god, you really do look like your mother.”_

            Eren swallowed. In the past half an hour he had discovered that this man sitting before him was Keith Shadis, a childhood friend of his mother’s. _“I do?”_

            Keith nodded. _“You look exactly like her.”_ A smile lit up his face and the skin around his eyes crinkled. _“Like a spitting image of her. If she was here right now—”_ he trailed off; decade and a half long grief flashed in his eyes. As quickly as the grief had come into his eyes it disappeared. Keith reached across the table and grasped Eren’s hand in his. _“What are you kids doing in Spain? Eren, where have you been all these years? Are you in trouble?”_

            Eren glanced at Armin and Mikasa before answering. _“We’re here mostly to learn about my mom.”_

            _“Well where have you been?! They reopened the case in Germany to look for you, you know.”_ Keith’s eyes lit up. _“One of those German cops came here a few months back. I should call him and—”_

            Eren stood up, _“No!”_

            Keith looked shocked at his sudden outburst.

            _“You don’t—please don’t do that_.” Keith became suddenly quite as he stared up at Eren’s face. His brows scrunched together in a questioning manner. He nodded at Eren and drew his hand back.

            _“I won’t force you to answer anything you don’t want to.”_ His eyes twinkled with a kindness that made Eren place trust in him wholeheartedly. Eren sat back down in his seat as Armin and Mikasa relaxed a little in their seats, drinking their sodas and eating Oreos.

            All four of them sat in silence for some time before Keith dispelled the silence. _“When did you come to Spain?”_

            _“About a week ago,”_ answered Mikasa as she took a sip of her soda.

            Keith nodded, _“have you kids had time to check out any of the local gallery’s in the city? Or there are some really good restaurants that serve some great food?”_

            Eren drummed his fingers against the kitchen table, _“actually. What can you tell me about my mother?”_

            Keith looked at Eren with a fond gaze in his eyes. _“Your mother,”_ he began with a reminiscent tone, _“was as stubborn and fiery as a bull. I remember once when we were little kids that she stood up to the local neighborhood bully—he was a nasty little thing, always pulling on people’s hair and throwing rotten eggs at them—your mother went right up to him one evening and kicked him so hard in his cojones that he didn’t come outside for weeks!”_ Keith threw his head back in laughter. Eren’s lips stretched into a smirk as Armin and Mikasa chuckled along.

 _“Even when she grew up that fiery spirit never went away.”_ Keith brought a hand up to his chin and stroked the tip of his chin with his fingers. _“I mean that changed a little when she met your father.”_ Keith paused, his lips pressed together and his eyes narrowed. _“Your father was—”_ Keith trailed off, his eyes getting a glassy look to them.

            Eren’s eyes narrowed, as his skin crawled with that tingling feeling he got when he knew something was being withheld. _“My father was what?”_ Eren asked.

            Keith shook his head, the glassy look from his eyes gone. _“It’s nothing.”_ He attempted to placate Eren with a smile.

            A light lit up Keith’s eyes as he stood from his chair. _“I don’t know if you know, but your mother was a fantastic opera singer. One of the best! I have some videos of her first concert.”_   Keith walked out of the kitchen only to reappear a few minutes later with DVD cases in hand. He motioned for the trio to follow him, they all went into the living room as Keith popped in one of the DVD’s into the DVD player.

            There was nothing on the screen for a few terse moments, before a large concert hall appeared on the TV screen. The building was packed, none of the seats in the concert hall were empty. The camera was focused on the stage as the concert hall darkened and a single spotlight shined on the microphone on stage. Eren held his breath as he watched his mother walk across the stage. She was wearing a green dress that sparkled and shimmered as she moved across the stage towards the microphone, she smiled at the crowd with a smile that seemed larger than life itself. She took a deep breath and paused before the microphone, she wrapped her fingers around its frame as a hushed silence fell over the audience.

            His mother closed her eyes and opened her mouth wide as the most beautiful sound he had ever heard in his life came from her lips. It was a sound that he would never be able to describe to another. A sound that made it seem like she was channeling the voice of an angel itself. Her powerful lungs had her belting out songs that seemed as if the heavens had picked out solely for her.

            Eren didn’t notice he was crying until the tears were streaming down his cheeks. On screen his mother smiled as her she sang the last note of her song; the crowd lept to their feet in thunderous applause as she bowed towards the audience and then just like that the TV screen faded to black.

            Keith got up and popped in another DVD, this time it was a home movie taken in his mother’s young years. It was a high school play, an adaption of Macbeth where his mother was playing the lead and the rest of the characters where genderbent. Eren watched as Keith got up from his seat and went into the kitchen. There was the sound of a telephone being picked up and soft murmuring for a while. Keith didn’t come back into the room until his mother laid on the floor, ceremoniously saying Macbeth’s last words before she died on stage. The theater erupted in applause as the curtain descended.

            Keith stood in front of the TV, a wide grin on his face. _“Eren, how would you like to meet your_ _abuelo_ _and abuelita?”_

            Eren’s eyes widened at the words as his heart began to pound in his chest. His grandmother and grandfather? For a brief second, Eren’s mind turned back to France again. Trepidation was twisting his stomach into knots as he stared down at the floor. How would they react to seeing him? There were so many questions running through his brain that the twisting feeling in his stomach didn’t die down.

            Keith must have sense Eren’s hesitation as the tall man strolled over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. _“We don’t have to go. It’s just an option.”_

            Eren squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep calming breath. _“No. It’s fine. Can we—can we go see them?”_

            Keith nodded his head. _“They only live about half an hour away from here. We can get there in my car.”_

            Eren’s heart was stuck in his throat as all of them went outside and got into Keith’s car. There was enough room in it for the trio to all sit together in the backseat. Armin and Mikasa squeezed his hands in a reassuring manner as Keith turned the key into the engine. The engine spluttered to life and Keith stared up at the rearview mirror as he backed the car out of the driveway.

            The houses on either side of the street whizzed by them until they melded into a cream and red colored blur. The further they went the more the distance between the houses started to increase. They drove until the exterior of the houses changed color; they passed by a park and shops selling trinkets and small sweets. Until the landscape became a sea of flowers and larger homes. Keith drove until they came to a street with a large house that had a wooden fence lining the property. There was a Spanish Cavalier running around the yard, digging out the flowers, but stopped as soon as Keith parked the car close to the house. All of them got out of the car and the dog wagged its tail and barked at the newly arrived visitors. It rushed towards the gate and pawed at it as they walked towards it.

            The front door to the home came flying open as a lanky older man and a plump women stood in the doorway. Their eyes were wide and the woman had brought a hand up to her mouth as her form shook. Eren was shaking as Keith opened the gate and the little dog rushed towards him, running around his heels, the dog ran towards the trio and sniffed at them as Armin bent down and scratched the dog on the back of the head.

            Eren stared at the old man and woman as he drew closer to them; their skin was pale as if they were peering at a miracle that had just appeared in front of them.

            Eren gasped in surprise as the old man and woman rushed out of the doorway and gripped him up into a group hug. The old woman was kissing his cheeks and thanking the heavens that he was safe and sound, there were tears in the old man’s eyes as he held Eren at arm’s length to get a good look as his face, before pulling him back into another hug. It was like they couldn’t believe he was alive or much less standing before them now. It was almost as if hope was restored to them, that hope had been brought back into their lives years after they had lost it. Eren wrapped his arms around his _abuelo_ and _abuelita_ before breaking down into tears himself as he pressed his head into their embrace.

 

**October 11 th**

            Cloe—the Spanish Cavalier—was resting comfortably in Eren’s lap as his _abuelita_ placed dish after dish on the kitchen table before them. His _abuelo_ ruffled his hair as he smiled softly, his green eyes, a shade darker than Eren’s own, twinkled brightly as his wife buzzed around the kitchen, refusing to take a break as she whipped out dish after dish of food to place on the table. Her brown hair bobbed up and down in the loose ponytail she kept it in, there were streaks of gray peppering her hair and the laugh lines around her lips reminded Eren of the pictures he had seen his mother in.

            Eren glanced down at the photo album before him. Staring up at him were smiling pictures of his mother from happier times. He absentmindedly scratched Cloe’s head with one hand as he flipped through the album; snapshots of his mother as a toddler, child and teenager captured his eye, he saw quite a few pictures of his mother standing near a young man with brunette hair and golden eyes. Eren didn’t realize it was Keith until he looked down at the swirling handwriting on one of the pictures that he assumed belonged to his grandparents. Eren’s eyes flicked up at Keith’s face. He wondered what had happened to the man to make his appearance change so drastically from what it used to be. There were a few photos of his mother’s wedding day, a picture of her smiling directly at the camera as his _abuelo_ walked her down the aisle. Another picture of her beaming brightly at his father as they stood in front of the priest. Then another picture of his mother with her hand resting gently on her large stomach, his father was smiling as he pressed his lips against her cheek, his own hand resting overtop of hers.

            Soon the table became piled with more food than Eren had ever seen before, he worried that the table would soon collapse under the weight. He would make out a few of the dishes covering the table: there were Spanish potato omelets, fresh tortillas, pulled pork, shredded chicken, empanadas, _croquetas_ filled with hot gooey cheese, sautéed octopus that smelled of delicious spices, a block of what appeared to be fried dough that he asked his _abuelita_ about and she said it was— _leche_ _frita_ __—a fried desert that had a pudding like center, smoked sausage, and fried fish. The food seemed to keep coming and coming and there was no end to it.

            His _abuelo_ had to tug on the edge of his _abuelita’s_ sleeve to get her to sit down at the kitchen table with them before she cooked another dish that would send the table buckling and collapsing underneath the weight it was attempting to hold up.

            The night passed by in a blur as laughter and jokes filled the air. Keith regaling stories of memories and adventures that he had of Eren’s mother. Eren laughed as he picked up one of the carne asada’s on the plate closest to him and bite into it. Cloe barked on his lap, staring up at him expectantly as he chewed and barked again as he picked out a piece of steak from his food and held it out to her, she waged her tail expectantly and stared up at him. Her jaw opened wide as she ate up the piece of meat. Chloe barked happily at him and licked at his fingers.

            His _abuelo_ and _abuelita_ laughed and listened happily to him, Armin, and Mikasa as they told them off their life back home in France—though they did leave out a few details—and how they were doing in school and anything else they wanted to know about their grandson.

            Eren had never felt so much love exist in one place before. The love that his grandparents held from him, even though they only just met him a few hours before was tangible in the room. They had welcomed him with open arms and didn’t treat him differently. Even Keith, whom he had met just today treated him like the nephew he had always had.

            Eren didn’t realize how much time flew by until he checked the time on his phone. It was nearly 2 in the morning and none of them had realized that it was so late. He pressed the back of his hand against his mouth as a huge yawn came from his mouth. Chole was snoring softly on his lap, paws twitching every few seconds as she dreamed.

            His _abuelita_ stood up from the table and started clearing all the empty plates off of the table and placing them into the sink on the counter next to it to be washed.

            Keith stood up from the table, _“I should probably drive you three back to my house so you can get your bikes. I’ll drop you guys off at your hotel.”_

            _“You don’t really have to.”_ Mikasa said as she pushed her chair away from the table. _“We can just ride our bikes back.”_

            Keith shook his head. _“I’m not going to allow 3 teens who barely know their way around Bilbao to ride their bikes back to their hotel at night. Besides if I did, I would have a slipper flying at the back of my head.”_ He laughed along with Eren’s _abuelo_. Eren’s _abuelita_ glared at Keith, with a look that said it wasn’t serious as a soft smile tugged at the corner of her lips.

            With that settled, they all agreed that Keith would be taking him back to his home so that they could get their rental bikes and return them before heading back to their hotel. Eren’s grandparents pulled him into a tight hug that made it seem like they never wanted to let him go, for fear that he would disappear from their lives again. Eren gave them his phone number and put their number in his and promised to call come over to their house every day during his stay in Bilbao and hugged them once more before leaving their home.

 

            Keith pulled the car up to the front of the hotel. Armin, Mikasa and Eren filed out of the backseat of the car. They stood in front of the hotel as Keith leaned closer to the passenger’s seat. _“Eren!”_ Eren walked over to the car and poked his head inside as Keith reached into the compartment box to pull out a notepad and a pen. He flipped the notepad open and clicked the pen before he scribbled down a series of numbers onto the notepad. He ripped the page out of it before handing the slip of paper out towards Eren. _“This is my number. Call me at any time—day or night—if you need to talk or if you’re ever in trouble.”_

            Eren nodded as he took the slip of paper from Keith’s fingers. _“Thanks.”_ Keith nodded as he bid the three of them goodnight, with the promise that he would see them tomorrow.

            Eren didn’t realize how tired he was as he shuffled into the elevator with Mikasa and Armin, he could barely keep himself standing up right without having to press himself into the corner of the elevator. The metal bars pressing into his back, he could feel the coldness of them through the thin shirt he wore. Mikasa jammed her finger against the button for their floor, the elevator dinged as the gold elevator doors slid shut. The elevator lurched upwards; the small screen above the elevator flashed red with the numbers of the floor it passed. The elevator dinged as it came to their floor and the doors slid open.

            Eren groaned as he fell onto his bed, his face pressed against the soft surface of his pillow.

            _“Eren. Armin and I are going to go out to this ice cream shop we saw earlier, do you want to come?”_ Mikasa leaned against the doorway to the bedroom.

            _“No. I’m still full from all the food I had at my grandparents.”_ Eren mumbled into his pillow.

            _“Alright. We’ll bring you back something.”_ Eren mumbled a thanks into the pillow as he heard Mikasa and Armin’s retreating footsteps and then the door opening and closing.

            He sighed before rolling onto his back and digging into the pocket of his jeans and retrieving his phone and the slip of paper Keith had given to him. He took a few seconds to put Keith’s number in his phone, before crumpling up the piece of paper and tossing it into the waste basket that was in the corner of the room.

            He rolled back onto his stomach, his face pressed against his pillow once more. The events of the day must have caught up with him as he awoke what felt like an hour later to the sound of his phone ringing. His eyebrows were pressed together in confusion as his sleep addled mind wondered what the source of that noise was before he reached down and grabbed his phone.

            He didn’t bother glancing at the caller ID as he pressed the accept button and pressed the phone against his ear. _“Hello?”_ He mumbled into the phone. There weren’t very many people who had access to his phone number. Armin and Mikasa were the only two who knew the number to his cellphone so he automatically assumed it was one of them calling him.

            The other end of the line was silent for what seemed like a long time. He couldn’t hear a thing coming from the other end. He pulled the phone away from his ear and glanced at the screen, the call wasn’t muted and the volume was up to a level that he should be able to hear whomever was calling him. He pressed the phone against his ear again. _“Hello?”_ He called out to the unknown caller again, before the caller suddenly hung up on him.

            He scowled as he pulled the phone away from his ear and checked to see who had called him. The word anonymous popped up in his call history. Great there was no number. _“Well, that was weird.”_ He mumbled to himself as he simply chalked the call up to nothing more than a prank of some sort or at least the wrong number calling his phone.

            He smacked his lips as he realized his stomach felt empty. Armin and Mikasa weren’t back yet and he wished that he had gone with them earlier to the ice cream shop. He suddenly remembered that there a convenience store about a black and a half away from the hotel. He swung his legs over the side of the bed before combing his fingers through his hair as he shoved his phone back into his jeans pocket and headed out of the hotel room and towards the elevators.

            The walk to the convenience store wasn’t that long. He unwrapped the wrapper from around the ice cream sandwich he got. It was a waffle cone wrapped around butter pecan ice cream. He bit it into it as the sweet flavor of the treat exploded on the tip of his tongue. His stomach rumbled in agreement as he polished off the treat on the way back to the hotel.

            It was late and Armin and Mikasa probably weren’t back yet. As he got into the elevator his phone played soft tune that sounded like wind chimes. He had a text message from Mikasa, apparently there had been a long line at the ice cream shop and only a few servers so she and Armin and had been forced to wait and they would be back in less than an hour with ice cream for him.

            His phone was still in his hand as he stepped out of the elevator and grabbed the key card for the room from his jeans pocket. He swiped the card in the card reader until the red light on it beeped as it changed to green.

            He pushed open the door and tensed up, his phone and key card flying out from his hands as a moist cloth was firmly clamped over his nose and mouth. An arm slid around his waist holding him still as he struggled to not breathe in the pungent odor of whatever the cloth was laced in, there was a sickly sweet undertone to it as well. He attempted to claw at whomever was holding him, his head was swimming as he struggled to stay upright. His fingers found no traction on the leather gloves and jacket that this person was wearing. Black spots were dancing in the corner of his eyes as his limbs went slack, the person behind him gently lowered him to the floor, removing the cloth from his face as they stood over him. Eren struggled to keep himself awake. He needed to get a good look at who this intruder was. He needed to call Armin and Mikasa. His eyes rolled in the back of his head as the darkness claimed him.

 

            The taste of the ice cream still lingered on Mikasa and Armin’s tongue as they headed towards the elevator. The ice cream shop was a popular destination in Bilbao as it served rolled ice cream by the cup and you could even decorate the contents of your cup with several topping flavors that the store offered. It was a fusion between a frozen yogurt and an ice cream shop, but it had been pretty delicious.

            The plastic bag in Mikasa’s hand crinkled. It was the ice cream she had promised to get Eren and it was his favorite flavor—chocolate mint—with all the ice cream toppings that he liked. As Armin and Mikasa rode the elevator up to their floor, a sense of…wrongness seemed to overcome them that had Mikasa rocking on the balls of her feet and glaring at the flashing numbers at the top of the elevator to go by faster.

            The elevator finally dinged as it stopped at their floor and as Mikasa and Armin stepped out into the hallway their heart dropped down to their feet. The door to their room was wide open, the bag slipped out of Mikasa’s hand as she ran into the room. Her heart pounding so fast and loud in her chest that she didn’t hear Armin call after her.

            She collapsed onto her knees as she saw what was on the floor of them room, mere inches away from the door. Eren’s phone and key card lay on the floor and Eren was nowhere to be found.


	19. The fall of the King

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a really long author's note with a lot of important information so please be sure to read it!!!!!!  
> This chapter is half the size of the normal chapters of this fic, but there's multiple reasons for that:
> 
> 1) I've been losing steam and desire to continuously work on this fic. I've been pouring a lot of blood sweat and tears into Web of Lies and I think I really need to take a break from writing this fic for awhile to get myself back in a place in which I don't feel like this fic is a burden to write.
> 
> 2) There's not much going on this chapter. Just a much needed conversation/confrontation between Levi and Eren where they air a lot of stuff that needed to be said and done between the two that leads up to much of the plot in the next few chapters of the fic.
> 
> 3) I was suddenly hit by a brilliant flash of inspiration to write and Edo period Haikyuu!! fic (that features an insane amount of feels, sword fighting, and Seven Samurai vibe to it) that requires a ton of binge watching and insane amounts of research and outlining and I would like to take as much time as I can to really devote myself to it.
> 
> So the chapter is short for those reasons. Also I don't know if I mentioned this beforehand, but I started writing an original novel on Wattpad called Risen From the Ashes by Sheka4. So if you like vampires or LGBT+ characters with a lot of raw and touching issues then this novel is definitely for you, so feel free to give it a read and support me!
> 
> I also wanted to touch on another issue as well. I've been receiving a few...slightly rude comments on this fic about the pace at which I am developing Levi and Eren's romantic relationship and that this fic should change the pairing tag or get rid of it because I haven't yet touched upon the romantic side of their relationship. I would just like to take the time to address that. 
> 
> I have a life outside of this fic, I go to a private college with a tuition that's so expensive that I wish Levi could give me some of the money he get's from his jobs. I'm working my butt off to make sure that I graduate and get my Bachelors in the two majors that I signed up for. So I'm sorry if this fic isn't reaching the Ereri relationship as fast as you want it, but I write this fic at my own pace and try to speed up the process to get the chapters out for this fic as fast as humanely possible. So if that sometimes means sleepless nights for me or binge drinking coffee I'd do it because there are people who genuinely enjoy this fic. But one thing I don't appreciate is Anon's coming into the comments and making snide comments about where this fic is going. This fic still has so many chapters and ideas left and when you signed up to read this you knew this fic was going to be a long one with maybe 20 or 30+ chapters. (I literally have a tag for this fic that says slow buildup). So if you don't like the pace that I write this fic or are pissed off that I haven't even gotten to the Ereri yet, then don't follow this fic. There are thousands of other Ereri fics out there than can suite whatever you're looking for. But thank you to all the kind readers who have stuck it out with me so far!!!! I love you guys so much and I love reading your comments a lot, so much that when I feel down I read them about 6 times or more until I feel better!
> 
> And with that said. I'll probably be going on a Hiatus for the rest of summer, I know it sucks, but I need a break and I need to focus on something else. So I'll be seeing you guys back in September with hopefully a double update or maybe even a triple update if I push myself.

**October 11 th**

            Eren groaned as the bed beneath him shook and rumbled, the pillow beneath his cheek felt nice and cold. He could hear rain drops pounding against the window and the car horns blaring. That was strange? He was several feet above the ground so why was he hearing car horns? He groaned again as he slowly opened his sleep crusted eyes; his pillow became a cold window misted over by the rain beating heavily down upon the land around him. Cars and trees whizzed by as he suddenly realized that he was no longer in his hotel bedroom. His hands flew to his pockets were he felt around for his phone. A lump of fear quickly built in his throat as he realized it wasn’t there.

_“You’re finally awake.”_

            Eren’s entire body stilled at the sound of that voice.

            _“Relax. I’m not going to hurt you.”_ Levi glanced over at Eren before shifting his gaze back onto the road. Eren glanced at Levi, his eyes raking over him from head to toe as he calmly gripped the steering wheel in in his left hand as the car sped down the highway. At least one of them was calm, but that person definitely wasn’t Eren.

            _“Where are we going?”_ Eren prayed that Levi wouldn’t notice the slight trembling in his voice.

            Levi kept his eyes trained on the road, before glancing over at Eren again. _“Home.”_

            They fell into silence, driving for some distance until Eren spoke. _“Why did you kidnap me from my hotel?”_

            A sad look flashed in Levi’s eyes before it disappeared.   _“You never gave me a chance to explain why I did what I did. This was the only way I could explain everything to you and I didn’t have a choice.”_

            Eren scoffed as he watched the rain pelt down harder and the trees blur together. He wondered if the slickness of the road would cushion his fall if he jumped out of the car right now. _“You have every bit of a choice. Everyone on this planet has a choice to make the actions that they do. So don’t say that you didn’t have a choice. Haven’t you ever heard of a cellphone?”_

            Eren turned his head to watch the muscle in Levi’s claw clench and unclench. _“Don’t start,”_ Levi growled. _“I’m not trying to fight with you. All I want is for you to listen to me and hear me out.”_

            _“And all I want is to get out of this car, but we both can’t get what we want. I could just jump out of this car.”_ His thumb rested over the buckle of his seatbelt.

            It was now Levi’s turn to scoff, he barely cast so much as a glance in Eren’s direction as he switched lanes. _“I could kill you faster than you can get your seatbelt unbuckled_.” There wasn’t a hint of a bluff in his voice and Eren knew that he probably would do it too.

            Eren slipped his thumb from off of the buckle before crossing his arms in front of his chest. _“Fine. Then why’d you kidnap me as a kid?”_

            _“Because there wasn’t any other option besides me taking you. It was a in the moment type decision. You were crying and I couldn’t just leave you there, there were too many things fishy about that job already. And who knows what would have happen to you if I had just left? You were lucky that I don’t kill kids.”_

            Eren snorted, _“I’m lucky? I’m supposed to be lucky that monsters apparently now have hearts?”_

            _“I get that you’re angry. You have every right to be, I killed your mom. That’s something I’ll never deny, but it was an accident.”_

_“How can a murder be an accident? Is that something you tell yourself every single time you go out on a hit? That you weren’t the one who pulled the trigger, but that your finger just happened to twitch?”_ The anger was evident in Eren’s voice and he felt it bubbling beneath his skin like molten lava.

            _“Eren. You weren’t in my shoes and you’ll never be. You have no clue what it was like to walk into that house and see Grisha slumped in his chair dead like a dog. I was going to leave. I had every intention of leaving, but your mom walked through that door. She wasn’t even supposed to be there in the first place. That’s the only reason why I took the job with knowledge that your mom was supposed to be in Spain with you. Not in Germany. Erwin didn’t have to ask me to do that job either. He could have asked someone else, anyone else and you wouldn’t even be sitting where you are right now. You’d be six feet under, laying in a casket with dried roses littering your grave.”_

            Eren had gotten silent. The only source of sound in the car between them was the _pit-pat_ of the rain hitting the car and the occasional groan of a car engine as the cars raced by them. He didn’t know whether he should believe Levi’s words right now. The man had lied to him more than once, hell he had lied to him his entire life. From the moment Eren could talk, lies had come out of Levi’s mouth almost like it was second nature—and it was—Eren wanted to believe that none of what Levi was saying was the truth. That he took the job knowing all of the facts that were laid out on the table. That he put a gun to his father’s head and squeezed the trigger, that he had aimed a gun at his mother’s chest with the intent of seeing her die in her own pool of blood. Or leaving their son fumbling in the dark for years about his identity? Who he really was.

            He wanted to believe so much that Levi’s words were no more than sugar coated lies, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it…he knew what Levi was telling him was the unfortunate truth.

            “ _Who ordered the hit?”_

_“I don’t know. We tried to figure it out, but all of our efforts lead to dead ends. Grisha seemed to have crossed the wrong people and was doing some things that weren’t befit of a doctor.”_

_“Don’t talk about my dad like that.”_ Eren spat. _“You could have been ordered to kill him just because someone didn’t like him. My dad was a saint.”_

            Levi was silent for a while. _“How can you say that about someone you hardly know?”_ Eren pressed his lips together until they turned into a thin, pink line. _“If Grisha was such a saint how could he allow his wife and kid to be caught in the middle of his own crossfire? A father doesn’t allow his own kid to suffer for his mistakes…I would know it. I never once as your father ever wanted you to suffer because of me.”_

            _“Stop it,”_ Eren snarled. _“You’re not my father. Don’t call yourself that.”_

            Levi stepped on the gas and pulled the car over to a dirt patch on the side of the highway so fast that Eren’s head smacked against the headrest of his seat and he swore he had a concussion or whip lash at the least.

            Levi turned in his seat so that he was facing Eren. He pushed a hand through his hair, pushing his bangs away from his face. Eren’s heart caught in his throat as that single move made Levi looked younger than Eren had ever seen him look before.

            _“Why are you so fucking difficult?”_ Levi whispered as he dropped his hand down onto his lap. _“I gave you the best life you possibly could have had. You never wanted for anything. I gave you food, a place to live, a place to feel safe.”_

_“If think that’s supposed to get you brownie points for having screwed up my life then you must be more delusional than you think.”_ Anger was dripping from Eren’s voice.

            Levi glared at him with lidded eyes. It almost looked like he was sleeping from the way his long eyelashes brushed against his cheeks. His eyes were dark, like the tumbling ocean during stormy weather. _“I could have gotten rid of you as a baby. I could have sold you to a dirty old man who’d be willing to have paid me bucket loads of money for you. You could be lying somewhere right now hopped up on drugs. There are a lot of old men out there who would pay millions to have you lying on their bed with your legs spread wide open.”_

            Eren held his breath as Levi unbuckled his seatbelt faster than the blink of an eye and pinned him against the seat with a single hand to his shoulder. Their eyes were locked in an intense gaze as Levi placed his other hand on Eren’s thigh. All of the nerves in Eren’s body were screaming as Levi slid the hand on Eren’s thigh lower down his thigh, his thumb stroking a line along the inner part of his thigh.

            Eren’s eyes went dark as he suppressed a shiver from running up and down his spine. He pushed Levi’s hands off of him. _“Don’t touch me.”_

             Levi stared at him for a few seconds before chuckling to himself as he buckled back up and pressed his foot against the gas and merged back into traffic. The skies above them released a groan and a roar as lightning and thunder flashed and crackled, the skies tears came down faster. It almost seemed like the skies were weeping for Eren.

 

            Mikasa was bouncing in her seat as the car raced down the highway. Keith gripped the steering wheel between white knuckled fingers, his determined eyes trained on the slick road. Her fingernails were piercing the synthetic leather that covered the seat. She bit her tongue to keep herself from telling Keith to drive faster, even though he was driving at a breakneck speed and any more than that and the car threatened to careen off the road.

            _“Look!”_ Keith jutted his chin towards the road. In front of them was a black sedan that from the bright orange sticker on the back of the car they knew was a rental.

            Armin who was in the back seat, gripped the passenger seat in front of him and leaned forward until his face was next to Mikasa’s. He narrowed his eyes as he intently stared at the car in front of them. A familiar mop of brown hair was visible from his vantage point. _“It’s Eren!”_ He shouted, pointing his finger towards the passenger seat of the other car. _“Eren’s in that car!”_

            Mikasa’s heart was pounding in joy as she dug her nails harder into the seat below her. They were going to get Eren back.

 

            The drive between Levi and Eren was a silent one. The rain was starting to let up as Levi pulled into 24 hour gas station. Levi needed to fill up the car and grab some food as Eren and he hadn’t eaten in quite a while. Eren’s stomach growled loudly in the confines of the car as Levi unbuckled his seatbelt. He unlocked the car door and Eren turned his head as a piece of black metal glinted in the back of Levi’s waistband. He held his breath until he heard the driver’s side door slam shut.

            He groaned, letting his head fall back and smack the headrest. There was no way for him to escape from this situation. It was one thing to fight against another person who was unarmed, but it was a whole other field if the other person happened to be carrying a weapon on them. Besides Eren didn’t want to know what it felt like to be shot.

            Eren turned his head to watch Levi enter the gas station. He nodded at the cashier and made his way to the back where a row of stocked refrigerated sandwiches was kept. Eren sucked in a breath between clenched teeth. Glancing at the row of gas pumps beside him that opened out to the bustling traffic of the highway, he wondered if he should take his chance and run.

            Hands smacked down on the glass of the passenger’s seat. Eren’s eyes widened as a sharp scream came from his lips. He stared at the hands on the window as Mikasa lowered her face, there were tears streaming down her cheeks. _“Eren, get out of the car!”_

            Eren swallowed as he tossed a looked towards the gas station. Levi held two wrapped sandwiches in his hands, carefully reading the labels. It was now or never. Eren motioned for Mikasa to move away from the door. She did so as he unbuckled the seatbelt and unlocked the door. His window of freedom was short and he knew that they needed to make every minute of it. Eren through open the passenger door and lept to his feet, grabbing Mikasa’s hand and dragging her to Keith’s parked car. Armin pushed open the back door for them as he saw them come running towards the car. Eren through a glance over his shoulder towards the gas station, he watched almost in slow motion as Levi lifted his head to stare out at the window and their eyes locked for a brief second. The sandwiches in his hands dropped to the floor as he began to race towards the entrance.

            Eren’s heart was pounding in his chest as he lept into the back seat, pulling Mikasa in after him, she slammed the door shut. _“Drive! Drive!”_ Eren shouted as Keith stepped down on the gas. The tires of the car squealed as gravel and dirt kicked up into the air. All four of them shouted as they peeled away from the gas station, the moment bullet’s started to lodge themselves into the car as Levi chased after the speeding car; his gun out and aimed at the car’s tire. He fired shot after shot, hopping the bullets would pop the tires.

            Levi shouted, throwing down his gun as the car weaved into highway traffic, the blasting horns of other cars chasing after it.


	20. The Ides of March

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's September! And I'm back! Like I said I would be, with a new extra long chapter update as well! So much agnst, so many secrets and questions finally answered! So many new questions added to the melting pot of questions! Hold on to your seats cause this chapter is a long ride and after this it's spiciness galore...and by spicy, I mean steamy...incredibly steamy...so steamy you can cook instant noodles with the upcoming chapters.
> 
> Also shout out to nekobishi for helping me edit this!

**October 11 th**

The smell of hot chocolate lingered in the air. The ceiling fan above Eren’s head groaned in protest as its blades spun faster and faster in a nauseating circle with an effort to dispel the hot heat that entered the kitchen from its window. A hot, throat scorching heat had pressed itself against the city throughout the day. Even as the sun went down, the heat had not abated, leaving the city and its citizens wrapped in a scorching blanket.

            Eren stared down at the grooves in the wood of the table as the chirping of the crickets bounced off the kitchen walls from the window. Outside the sky was littered with stars and a full moon casted down soft light onto the city. Coming home, the hours had blurred together into a melted fragment of Eren’s mind. In that blur, Keith had driven them back to their hotel to retrieve their belongings. As he had said, _“if Levi is capable of finding you so easily, who else could do the same?”_ The trio had grabbed their things and checked out of the hotel in an anxious rush. Keith had driven them back to his home with the promise that they could stay there for the duration of their trip, but the unspoken look he had given Eren, had told him he could stay at his home indefinitely.

            Eren lifted his head from his hands as Keith slid three heavy mugs of Spanish hot chocolate onto the table and toward the trio. The mugs were laden with whipped cream, shaved chocolate and a cherry on top. Eren’s top teeth sunk harshly into his lower lip, the copper taste of blood leaked onto his tongue. He barely noticed that his entire body was shaking until Keith placed a hand onto his shoulder. Eren tilted his head upwards and stared into Keith’s eyes; the muscles in his body relaxing some as the elder motioned wordlessly to the mug in front of Eren.

            Eren reached out in front of him and grasped the mug between the palms of his hands before lifting the ceramic container a few inches away from his lips. He leaned forward slightly and pressed his lips against the rim before taking a sip. He was a bit surprised to find the liquid was anything but scalding hot; it was warm, but not lukewarm; the perfect temperature to warm his body from the inside out.

            The sweet taste of cocoa washed over the surface of his tongue, with a hint of spice layered underneath that just seemed to bring out the sweetness of the drink all the same.

            The trio polished down their mugs of hot chocolate without so much as a single word passing between them. Armin and Mikasa knew that Eren needed to his own space, so they were giving it to him. He was grateful.

            Keith came over and snatched the empty mugs off of the table to carry them over to the sink. Water gushed out of the pipes and into the tub below like a geyser. Like white noise, it drowned out the thoughts brewing in Eren’s brain. Armin and Mikasa could sense a change in his behavior as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat. They were making light conversation between each other as Eren focused on the sound of the running sink. It felt like his brain was on autopilot, as Mikasa and Armin would pause in the middle of their conversation at times to ask Eren questions. He would respond to them a few times, usually no more than a single word or two. He knew Keith and his friends were trying to treat him gently, like some eggshell that had been broken previously before and they were terrified of dropping him and breaking him even further.

            Eren took a deep breath, pressing the tip of his tongue to the roof of his mouth as his heart beat painfully in his chest. He took a few more deep breaths as he focused on the sound of gushing water blasting out of the pipe as Keith washed soiled dishes. The slow rhythmic sound of water was almost like a lullaby to him as his head leaned forward, his chin to his chest as his heavy sleep addled lids closed and snapped open. He breathed softly as black spots danced in the corners of his eyes. An hour later he found himself being shook awake by Keith.

            Armin’s head was leaning forward, his soft breathing signified that he was asleep, Mikasa’s head was slumped against Armin’s; her bangs falling in front of her eyes. Eren woke the two of them as Keith walked out of the kitchen; the three stand from their chairs to trail after him. They walked up the stairs to the second floor, where Keith pushed open the door to the spare bedroom. Inside the room was sparse, save for a few essentials—like a bed, dresser and a closet. Armin shuffled his feet into the room, his arms laden with Mikasa’s weight. She had barely made it to the steps before she was asleep on her feet. Armin had swept her up into his arms and carried her up the stairs. Armin’s knees hit the edge of the bed, he dumped Mikasa unceremoniously onto the middle of the bed before collapsing down on the lavender smelling sheets next to her.

            Eren’s lips tugged at the sides in a lazy, sleep ridden smile.

            _“Eren,”_ the deep timbre of Keith’s voice filled the space between them. Eren turned his head to see Keith leaning against the frame of the door, his arms crossed and the wrinkles around his eyes more pronounced than Eren had seen them before. Keith seemed to look at him and sigh, he uncrossed his arms. _“Good night.”_

            _“G’night,”_ Eren mumbled as Keith pulled the door behind him, leaving the room, leaving the door open a sliver so that a thin strip of light filtered into the bedroom. The light fell across the bed and illuminated Armin’s features and strips of Mikasa’s hair. Eren sighed to himself as he stared down at the sleeping forms of his friends. Their chests rising and falling with each breath they too.

            He turned and slowly sank down onto the bed, placing his elbows on his knees and letting his head fall into his hands below. A choked sob bubbled in his throat and died behind his closed lips. His shoulders rose and fell as hot tears fell from the corners of his eyes and streamed down his cheeks.

            He felt so tired…

            It seemed that life was all but a knife that was constantly being wielded against him and that he found himself playing the unfortunate role of Julius Caesar. Only to find that those same knives were being plunged into him over and over again.

            He was so tired. Of all of these feelings. Of all of this pain that was blooming in his chest over and over without a respite in between it all.

            He was tired. Of grief and sorrow. Of feelings and thoughts that were burning through his mind and heart. Feelings he wished he didn’t have. Hadn’t known existed. Feelings that he didn’t want to touch or think about or else he would have to acknowledge they actually existed.

            He wished everything was different.

            That he wasn’t in Spain right now. But instead in a place he had known as home for so long; in a bed that was his own and not the cold, crispness of a hotel’s own or the artificial lavender scent of sheets in a spare bedroom. He longed for those lazy Saturday mornings, where the scent of blueberry pancakes and bacon would be the things that woke him up.

            He missed walking down the steps to the kitchen; to the smell of coffee brewing and the soft hums and low murmuring coming from Levi as he sang an old French song from the 80s, that Levi would never admit to anyone that he enjoyed much more than he portrayed.

            He missed the soft smile on Levi’s lips when he would turn around after hearing Eren greet him good morning. He missed the way he would ruffle his hair or pull him in for a hug.

            He missed how his life was just a few months ago, before all of this…this mess that he wished had never happened.

            He wished he had never learned about what had happened to his mother; what happened to his father. Much less what had happened to him as a child.

            He remembered a quote he had read once when he was 8 years old from a book that Levi had been reading intently for most of the day. Levi had sat comfortably on the couch, a mug of steaming coffee resting on the coffee table affront him. The droning of a children’s cartoon against the backdrop of a snowy day had seemed picturesque to the both of them; the effect of it being that Levi soon drifted off to the sleep on the sofa. The book pressed against his stomach as the entire length of his body was stretched out across the sofa.

            Eren glanced over at him, had watched the rise and fall of his chest for some time before getting up and tiptoeing over to him. Eren had reached out and gripped the edge of the book that was pressed firmly against Levi’s stomach. He tugged on the book, until it slid from Levi’s grip. With an 8 year old’s sense of curiosity, he lifted the book to his eyes were complex words that he was incapable of comprehending with such a small mind. Though he could read some words, he couldn’t understand the meaning behind them. He remembered one quote he had read from between those pages that seemed apt to describe his life right now.

            “People don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.” Friedrich Nietzsche.

            Would he have been better off left not knowing the truth? Not having the very illusions placed in front of him destroyed? Was it better to have never known the truth than to be confronted with it? Would he have been better off spending the rest of his life ignorant to who he was, to who he came from, where he came from? Would he have been better off never making the choices that he did?

            He wondered about it. The thought was popping into his head more than he wished it did.

            He lifted his head from his hands and wiped his tears away with the back of his hands before pinching at his cheeks. It wouldn’t do him any good right now to cry his way through the rest of the night.

            He turned his head to stare at his two friends as they slept. The thought of sleep was unappealing to him, so he pushed himself up from the bed and headed towards the bedroom door. He placed his hand on the edge of the door and pulled it open. Light poured into the room as he stepped into the hallway, pulling the door closed behind him.

            He walked to the steps and descended down them. The light to the kitchen was still on, he noticed as he reached the bottom of the steps and turned. He walked, silently to the kitchen to see Keith sitting at the kitchen table staring ahead of him absentmindedly. A steaming cup of tea was but a few inches from his fingers.

            Eren cleared his throat as he stepped into the kitchen. Keith turned in his chair slightly, the muscles in his body were tense and the smile on his face made the tiredness in his face more evident.

            _“Did I startle you?”_ Eren asked as he moved to one of the empty chairs. He pulled the chair closest to Keith out from the table before sitting in it.

            Keith shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger. _“No. You didn’t.”_ He moved his fingers away from the bridge of his nose before placing his hand palm down on the kitchen table. _“Do you want something to eat or drink? I can make you something.”_

            _“No,”_ Eren replied with a small smile, _“I’m fine. You don’t need to get me anything.”_

            Keith nodded before clearing his throat, a comfortable silence settled between them both, but where it should have eased the worry from Eren’s brow, it only served to increase his discomfort.

            He crossed his feet; one over the other and pressed his hands together as he listened intently to the chirping of crickets coming from outside through the open window above the kitchen sink.

            The silence made him think and it was something he really didn’t want to do right now. He didn’t want to think, he wanted to be distracted. To have his mind focused on anything else, except the thoughts of his own head.

            A pit of fear formed in his stomach and his mind churned over the memory of having a hand pressed firmly over his mouth and staring into Levi’s storm cloud colored eyes. He pressed his fingertips firmly together as his throat burned and seemed to become tight, making it difficult to breathe. The surface of his skin was crawling as if a thousand needles pricked against it. How had Levi even found him? They had been so careful, so cautious and so sure that he would never find them. It brought a shiver to Eren’s skin just to even think about it.

            If Levi could find them as easily as he did, then there was no telling what other cards he held up his sleeves.

            _“Was it him?”_

Eren shifted his eyes to Keith who had just spoken. Golden eyes bore into green ones, leaving Eren uncertain as of what to say. Eren pulled his hands apart; his fingers curling into the palm of his hands before he pulled them into his lap.

That single question hung in the air between them, dangling on a single thread. Eren knew what he was asking.

Keith cleared his throat again after Eren didn’t answer for quite some time. He repeated the question again. _“Was it him?”_

Eren nodded his head, _“Yes…”_

The two of them slipped back into silence again. The chirping of crickets outside the only sound between the two.

            A few minutes passed before Keith spoke. _“I won’t press you for information if you don’t want to talk about it.”_

Eren nodded in response, choosing to say nothing more. He could feel Keith’s faze on him until the older man’s eyes looked elsewhere. He finally lifted the mug of tea to his lips and took a sip from it before making a displeased expression. He lowered the mug back to the table and chuckled to himself before looking at Eren. _“One of the worst tea’s I’ve ever had, I think if I poured it on my flowers outside they would wilt right in front of me.”_

            Eren laughed, his fingers uncurling from his palms.

            Keith smiled at him, “ _I’m thinking that in the morning, you kids can just stay with me.”_ Eren opened his mouth to protest, but Keith cut him off with a sharp flick of his wrist. _“You don’t have to say anything.”_ There was a paternal warmth oozing from Keith’s eyes as he spoke this.

            The back of Eren’s throat tingled and burned with a feeling that he couldn’t describe. _“You don’t,”_ Eren began, _“you don’t really have to do this—”_ Eren pressed his lips firmly together as Keith shot him a determined glare that silenced him.

            _“My home is open to you and your friends Eren. If I say it’s fine, then it is. You don’t ever have to feel like I’m going to betray you.”_ Keith reached across the table and placed his hand on top of Eren’s own. It was warm. Keith’s determined gaze pierced Eren’s soul, _“you can trust me.”_

            Eren’s throat tightened again with that indescribable emotion. Any words that he thought he could say were quickly trapped in the confines of his throat. He opened his mouth, but quickly closed it as the words he wanted to say wouldn’t form on his tongue.

            Keith patted the back of his hand before pulling his own away. _“Go get some sleep. I’m sure you’re tired by now.”_

            Eren nodded his head as he pushed up and out of his chair. He bid Keith goodnight and walked out of the kitchen, and toward the stairs. Slipping back into the bedroom, the thin strip of light that filtered through widened momentarily. Eren watched for a moment as a sleep gripped Mikasa scrunched up her nose as light fell across her eyes, she rolled over in the bed and smacked Armin in the face with her hand. Armin’s own face scrunched up before relaxing.

            Eren walked around the bed to the only empty space left that wasn’t taken up by his friends’ bodies. He laid down on the bed, the sheets beneath him a cool relief compared to the hot Spanish heat. The temperature differences were a blessing in disguise as he felt his mind sinking further and further into the bed. His mind—a jumbled mess, becomes squashed into a ball and placed inside of a locked chest. Sleep wrapped its arms around him as his body became relaxed.

            He didn’t know how much time had passed as he slept. When he woke, the room was steeped in darkness. He swallowed thickly as he felt something flat and warm pressed against his lips. He parted them, but found that he was unable to speak or even utter a sound. He could feel hair that wasn’t his own brush against his cheek and felt a warm, moist breath tickle the outer shell of his ear.

            _“Don’t make a sound.”_ His brows scrunched together as he tried to place the voice of the intruder in the room. He could tell it wasn’t Levi or Hanji’s own. The voice spoke in a monotone manner and lacked a single hint of emotion in it.

            Eren’s eyes began to adjust to the darkness of the room and his eyes widened in surprise as he came to make out the distinct facial features of the person above him.

            Annie lifted her hand from his mouth and pressed a single finger to her own lips in warning. Her eyes bore into him, making him feel as if she had a tight grip on his soul. There was hardly a flicker of emotion in her face; Eren was both annoyed and perplexed as to Annie’s sudden appearance in both Bilbao and Keith’s home. And he also wondered as well, how the hell had she even gotten into the house in the first place?

            Annie kept her eyes trained on Eren as she slowly backed away from the bed. His eyes tracked every single one of her movements as she turned and headed straight for the bedroom door. She pulled it open and stepped out into the hallway.

            Eren waited with bated breath as the seconds ticked by without Annie poking her head back into the room. Eren turned his head to stare at the sleeping forms of his friends before silently groaning at the loss of sleep. He sat upright in bed, it momentarily dipped with his weight before he pushed himself off of it. He followed Annie out in the hallway, puzzled to see that she wasn’t there. He walked down the steps and looked at the front door to see that it was closed shut. He headed towards the kitchen; a light breeze ghosted along the surface of his skin and for a second he wondered if Keith had forgot to shut the kitchen window before heading upstairs.

            He squinted his eyes, watching as the sheer curtains that hung over the glass double doors that led to the backyard, swaying from the light breeze drifting through the open doors. Eren could see the faint outline of Annie’s body standing in the fenced yard from where he stood. Her face was turned upwards to the heavens where the inky night sky where a thousand stars glittered in the milky pool of darkness like thousands of freshly polished jewels.

            Eren’s bare feet padded against the cold tiled floors as he walked to the double doors. He paused for a moment before pushing aside one of the curtains and stepping outside.

            _“Do you ever wish you could be a star?”_ Annie called out without so much as turning her head to glance at him. The fringe in her loose ponytail swayed in the breeze, she lifted her hand and pushed it away from her right eye.

            Eren walked towards her, the slightly dew soaked grass felt as cold as spring’s rain to him. He breathes deeply as he came to stand beside her, the scent of wildflowers and freshly mowed grass hit his nose. He pondered her philosophical question for a moment. _“I don’t think I’d want to be a star…I would rather be myself.”_

            Annie seemed to go quiet for a moment, but really when had she ever been the one to talk? Her eyes were still trained on the night sky. _“I guess that’s what makes you so different.”_ She seemed to whisper to herself.

            Eren was confused by her statement, by the entirety of her actions in the short hour she had appeared in Keith’s home. Eren desperately wanted to ask her what she even meant by that, he wanted to ask her a million questions, but he knew that he wouldn’t get a single answer to any of them. She slipped into habitual silence again. Eren rubbed his hands together before sticking them into the pocket of his jeans.

            _“I came because Bertolt couldn’t.”_ Annie breathed out in a single, rushed breath. Eren glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes. The very mention of Bertolt’s name had a thousand questions dancing on the tip of his tongue. _“Why couldn’t he come?”_

            Annie glanced at him; her lips pressed firmly shut.

            Eren sighed. _“The least you could do is answer a single question of mine, especially after waking me up in the middle of the night.”_

            Annie cocked her head to the side, thinking for a few moments before responding. _“Bertolt, Reiner and I work for the same employer.”_

            The mention of the word employer had Eren raising a brow. The way Annie said it, made the word sound dangerous.

            _“Doing what exactly?”_ Annie fell silent yet again.

            _“That’s not exactly something I can answer.”_

_“Is it? Or are you just refusing to answer?”_

            Annie looked at him, her face unreadable, but he could feel the burn along the surface of his skin and knew that he was now treading in dangerous Annie infested waters.

            _“We work for your father—”_ Annie paused in midsentence before letting the name fall from her lips like a bomb. _“Grisha.”_

            That single name stole Eren’s breath away. The world around him began to spin and he wasn’t certain that he could keep himself standing upright on his own two legs. _“He’s dead,”_ Eren croaked out from a voice he wasn’t certain was his own.

            _“Well he isn’t.”_ Annie stated bluntly. _“He’s alive, breathing and shitting like the rest of us.”_ If that was Annie’s own version of a joke, he wasn’t laughing along with her. _“I can take you with me to meet him.”_

            Eren curled his hands into fists and took a shaky breath as he struggled to breathe. A droplet of sweat traveled down from his temple to his cheek. Grisha was alive. He couldn’t believe it. It brought so many questions to mind. Why was Grisha working with Bertolt, Annie and Reiner? Why hadn’t Bertolt been able to just tell him about this? Or most of all, why hadn’t his father ever tried to contact him before? Why now? He swallowed thickly as he didn’t know what to make of Annie’s sudden proposal.

            _“Thank you for the offer, but…”_

            But what? He wanted to meet Grisha, he was his father after all, but something was keeping him back. Something was keeping him from just simply accepting Annie’s offer.

            Annie sighed exasperatedly before reaching into her back pocket and pulling out a small, black business card. She held the card out to Eren. His fingers unclenched from his fist as he lifted his left hand to pull the business card away from Annie’s fingers.

            It just seemed that the questions were piling up in front of him today. The surface of the card was smooth; bare of any writing or etchings on it, just an inky black color that covered the entirety of the card. He flipped it over and was surprised to see a single word, written in golden cursive on the other side.

            Titans.

            What the hell was going on? What did this even mean? Everything that was happening right now smelled like there was something else beneath it, something undoubtedly fishy and Eren wanted to know the truth behind everything.

            He looked up only to find himself alone in the backyard. Annie was nowhere to be seen.

            _“Eren?’_

            Eren turned his head to see light flooding the kitchen. Keith was standing near the glass doors, he stared blearily at Eren, his eyes still clouded over with the haze of sleep.

            _“What are you doing out here?”_

            Eren glanced down at the business card in his hand, he slipped it into the pocket of his jeans before turning his gaze back to Keith. _“It’s nothing. I just couldn’t go to sleep.”_

            He watched as Keith’s eyes raked over the dew covered grass as if he was looking for something that was out of place. _“Okay. Just get some sleep. I don’t want you passing out later from exhaustion.”_ Keith yawned, before turning back into the house.

            Eren took a deep breath as he stared up at the glowing stars in the sky. It seemed like they held all the answers to his questions, but they were far beyond the reach of his fingers. Turning on his heel, he headed back inside the house. The lights in the kitchen went out, plunging the house back into darkness once more.

 

**October 12 th**

            Eren groaned in his sleep as a hand smacked down onto his face. Cursing under his breath, his eyes opened to a bright, sun lit room to greet him. He pushed Armin’s hand away from his face, letting the appendage drop to Armin’s side as the blond haired teen and Mikasa slept the morning away. He sniffed the air as the scent of melted butter and pancakes seeped into the bedroom. His stomach growled in hunger and his mouth water at the various scents wafting into the room.

            Eren pushed himself out of bed and ambled downstairs to the kitchen. The smell of pancakes hit him in the face as his bare feet touched the tiled floors. He watched with a grin on his lips as Keith spun around the kitchen, singing the lyrics to the song that was pouring in from the small radio placed on one of the counters.

            Keith’s eyes momentarily widened in surprise when he spun on his heels and saw Eren standing in the archway of the kitchen. He reached up to the small hand towel that was thrown over his shoulder, he pulled it off of his shoulder and used it to wipe his hands. _“You’re up early.”_ Keith reached over to a knob on the stove and turned it down till the flames were faint and blue. _“I hope you got a good night’s sleep. I made a feast—blueberry pancakes, fried eggs and my own special hazelnut syrup…none of you kids are allergic to nuts, right?”_ Keith turned, a flash of worry appearing in his eyes at Eren’s distant and somber look.

            Eren shook his head, cutting off Keith’s chance to ask him what was wrong as he moved towards the kitchen table and took a seat.

            Eren stared at his hands, trying to figure out how to approach Keith about the one question that was burning itself onto his tongue. _“Can I ask you a question?”_

            Keith hummed as he turned back to the hot pan on the stove, ladling a spoonful of pancake batter into the butter coated pan. _“Sure.”_

            _“What do you know about my father?”_

            The kitchen fell silent. The only sound between the two of them was the sizzle and pop of the pancake batter in the pan.

            Keith sighed, he bent down to turn the stove off before wiping his hands on the towel that was draped over his shoulder again. He slapped the used towel onto the counter before making his way over to the kitchen table. He pulled out the chair across from Eren to sit down heavily. He stared at Eren, his golden eyes questioning the young teen. _“What do you want to know exactly?”_

            _“Everything.”_

            Keith sighed again, briefly closing his eyes for a few seconds before opening them again. _“This is going to take some time. So I suggest you make yourself as comfortable as possible.”_

            Keith took a deep breath as he began to tell Eren everything he knew about his father.

            _“It was the summer after your mother and I graduated college. I remember it was hot that day, extremely so. I was walking to the grocery store to pick up a few things for your abuelita, who was planning on throwing a small celebration for your mother and I._

_It was sweltering. Not too many people were out on the streets. I was minding my own business, keeping to myself as I walked towards the grocery store. Nothing was out of the norm that day…that’s what I thought until I bumped into your father or rather he bumped into me. At first your father looked like any number of tourists that found themselves lost in Bilbao. He wandered the streets, his eyes unfocused and darting all around. He was wearing clothes unsuitable for the hot weather that day. Dark loafers, with dressy pants and a button down with one tail tucked into the hem of his pants and the other loosely hanging out of them.” Keith’s lips stretched across his face until they were no more than a thin line as he recalled the memories locked in his own head. “Everything about your father was disheveled. At first I thought he was drunk, like one of the old men on the block would drink half their weight in beer and be drunk before it was even noon. Just something about him, seemed strange.”_

            Keith paused as he pushed his chair back and got up from the table. He moved towards the cabinets next to the fridge. He pulled one open, plucking two glasses out from it before shutting it. He then walked towards the sink and turned the tap on, washing out the glasses before walking over to the kitchen table and placing them down. Heading to the fridge, he pulled out a large bottle of orange juice. He walked back to the kitchen table and sloshed orange juice into the two glasses. He pushed one of the glasses towards Eren before sitting back down at the kitchen table.

            _“I had every ounce of intention to walk past him. Ignore him. But I couldn’t. He looked pitiful, like a wounded animal that you just feel the need to help. So I went up to him and asked him a few questions in English. He looked at me, like he couldn’t understand a single word I was saying.”_ Keith paused, taking a moment to stroke his chin. _“But then something in his eyes cleared, he looked at me and spoke in fluent Spanish. Like he had spoken the language his entire life. He sounded confused too, asking me where we was, what city was this? What country was he even in? The year, the date and even the time. It’s like your father had no memories of anything at all. The only thing he could remember to my surprise was his name and the fact that he was doctor. But nothing,”_ Keith paused, _“nothing could have prepared me for what happened that day.”_

            Keith stared down at the dark wood of the table as he got lost in his own memories.

 

**The past**

            Keith stared at the strange man that walked beside him. He had long, wavy brown hair that reached the tips of his shoulders. Keith regarded him with a strange look, before turning his head away from Grisha—or that was at least what this stranger said his name was—he slipped his hands into the pockets of his shorts. A sour taste immediately filling his mouth. There was something in his gut, a feeling that screamed out to him. Grisha reached up with his hand and pushed up his glasses that were threatening to slip off of his face. He didn’t quite know where to take Grisha. A hotel? A hospital? Or maybe a mental institution?

            Was there a place that he could take Grisha for…whatever his issue was?

            His feet seemed to be deciding for him where the best place to take Grisha was. As the two of them rounded the corner of the street that lead to Carla’s parents’ home.

            A crowd of people thicker than the eye could see were pushing against one another and standing on their toes to see whatever had drawn their attention. A little old lady stood at the back of the crowd leaning against her cane. _“Ah, abuelita!”_ Keith called out to the little old woman. The old woman turned herself around to face Keith. _“What’s going on?”_

            The old woman stared up at Keith. _“There seems to have been a car accident. Those poor folks and their daughter.”_ Keith’s heart dropped inside of his chest as he hastily pushed through the crowd. Nothing around him seemed to matter as he focused only on the path in front of him. His mind barely processed the harrumphs of annoyance of the people he pushed by or Grisha calling out to him as he chased after his heels.

            The smell of burning metal and gasoline was the first thing to hit his nose along with cries of the passerby’s for someone to call an ambulance. A large metal dent was on driver’s side of Carla’s parents’ car. A dark sedan was left running in the middle of the street, its entire front damaged from the collision.

            Keith raced to the car, despite the protest of those around him. His hands smacked down on the backseat window on the driver’s side. Carla’s cheek was pressed against the window, blood dripped from her temple where she had smacked her head against it.

            _“Carla!”_ Keith shouted as his hands flew down to the door handle, it was twisted from the impact and somewhere in the back of his mind he knew he wouldn’t be able to open the door with it, but that didn’t stop him from trying. He lifted his leg and pressed his feet against the contorted metal of the car as he tugged and tugged on the door handle with little avail.

            _“Does someone have a crowbar?”_ Keith looked behind him as he continued to tug on the door.

            Grisha stood beside him, his spine straight and a determined fire burning in his eyes. A stark difference from the demeanor he had displayed just a few moments before. One of the members of the crowd soon ran towards Grisha, a crow bar in hand. Grisha took it from them and raced towards where Keith stood. _“Move!”_ Grisha shouted before wedging the edge of the crowbar through the narrow slit of the car door. The car door groaned before popping open, the hinges groaning dangerously. At that moment Carla slowly opened her eyes, a soft wail bubbled past her lips.

            _“Keith!”_ She shouted, lifting a hand out towards him. Hot tears were slipping down her cheeks.

            Keith pushed Grisha aside to reach out towards Carla’s outstretched hand with his own. He grasped her hand in his own and squeezed it reassuringly.

            _“Everything is going to be fine, Carla!”_ Keith attempted to console her as she continue to cry. _“Everything is going to be okay.”_

            _“Keith,”_ Carla hiccupped between sobs, _“I can’t feel my legs.”_

            Keith turned to look at Grisha, who had as much panic written on his face as Keith. The smell of gasoline in the air was becoming stronger, out of the corner of their eyes a thick plume of smoke was curling from the hood of the car.

            _“We have to get them out of the car!”_ Grisha yelled as an explosive booming sound suddenly pierced the noise coming from the crowd around them, flames from the hood of the car curled towards the sky.

            A few members from the crowd rushed forwards, helping to pry open the driver and passenger side doors to free Carla’s parents.

            Grisha moved towards Carla, he looked up at Keith. _“I need you to unbuckle her seatbelt while I keep her head steady. She may have suffered an injury to her spine.”_

            In the back of his mind Keith questioned Grisha’s calm and collected behavior and the medical knowledge that he seemed to display, but he followed Grisha’s instructions as the brunette gently wrapped his hands around Carla’s neck, keeping her steady. The wail of ambulances behind them drowned out the sound of the crowd.

           

            When they arrived to the hospital, the doctors praised Grisha and Keith for their quick thinking. A few more minutes and the car would’ve exploded leaving Carla and her parents laying in caskets instead of hospital beds. The doctors especially praised Grisha for stabilizing Carla’s neck as she had suffered some minor spinal damage that would keep her confined to a bed for a few months. Nothing permanent if she stuck to getting some rest and occupational therapy.

            After that Carla’s parents got released from the hospital the very same day. Keith and Grisha were blushing as bright as tomatoes when the two had profusely thanked the two young men for saving their lives and their daughter’s own as well.  The two visited Carla afterwards, she had smiled up at Keith, with a smile that he swore could melt the entire continent of Antarctica itself. His smiled slipped off of his face as stared down at Carla’s hands as she reached out and held Grisha’s own, thanking him for saving her life. There was a tenderness to her voice, to the way she held his hands that left a burning sensation in Keith’s chest. He raised his hand and rubbed at the muscle over his heart, passing it off as no more than simple heartburn.

            Keith had then taken Grisha to the police station after, only to become increasingly suspicious of the man after they left the station. The police had found very little information under the name Grisha Yeager. No birth certificate. No country of origin. Not even an email registered under his name. It was like the man didn’t exist at all. Even after countless hours of questioning, the cops could only come back with information that Keith already knew. A name, an age and what Grisha was certain his profession was—he was a doctor along with a plane ticket they had found in the pocket of the pants he wore. A one way ticket from some random small town in Germany to Spain. At least the doctor bit explained why Grisha had been so calm and collected hours earlier in the face of an accident.

            A few months later and Keith had done well in the academy, earning top marks on all his fields and his superiors were praising him highly that he could do some good once he joined the force. Carla’s parents had a friend that graciously set Grisha up with an apartment in the city and everything else that he needed. From what he had heard Grisha had found work for some posh old, rich doctor in some ritzy hospital.

            Keith dipped his head at a little old lady passing by through the corridor. The petals of the flower bouquet he held in his hand had a nice fragrant smell coming from them. He was in a chipper mood as he had spent the last month and half visiting Carla every day after his training. Taking care of her and getting her whatever she needed. He rounded the corner of the hallway before stopping at the door that lead to Carla’s private room. His hand was outstretched to grab the handle of the door and push it open, but he stopped. His eyes wide and jealousy burning in the confines of his heart as he watched Grisha bent over Carla’s bed. Their lips pressed against one another in a passionate kiss.

            Keith angrily tossed the bouquet of flowers down on the tiled floor before whirling around and taking off down the hall, his heart burning inside of him as if someone was holding a candle to it.

 

            Keith had disappeared from Carla’s life. After that day, he didn’t go to visit her or even call her nor when she had been released from the hospital. He just removed himself from her life completely, and four years later he had thought he had done a good job of pushing any single thought related to her out of his mind. He had worked himself to death over those four years, becoming a shining star of the force and even had the chance of meeting the mayor for taking down a dangerous drug gang with months of undercover sting operations. He had worked himself to the bone. His only relationship that he had maintained was the one he had with his job.

            He thought he had done a good job of pushing Carla and anything related to her out of his mind. That is until he opened his door, one early Friday morning.

            Carla stood outside of his apartment, looking no different than the last time he had saw her, though her hair was a little bit longer and there seemed to be permanent laugh lines around the corners of her lips. She looked up at him, her eyes big and round and so startlingly clear that he could see his own reflection in them. _“Can I come in?”_ She cocked her head to the side as Keith opened the door a little bit more for her to walk into the apartment.

            Carla’s eyes danced over the wall of newspaper clippings, awards and plaques that detailed his accomplishments over the last 4 years before turning around to face him, a smile on her lips. _“You haven’t changed over the years_ ,” a breathy and friendly laugh left her lips.

            There were dark circles under his eyes, making his appearance seem as if he hadn’t slept for years. His hair was a little thinner than it had been a few years before. He didn’t return her smile. _“What do you want?”_ Keith gruffly asked as he toed the frayed edges of the rug that lay beneath the coffee table.

            The smile from Carla’s lips slipped and there was a flash of hurt and betrayal that danced across her eyes. _“I’m getting married soon and…I was hoping you could come to the wedding?”_ The blood in Keith’s veins bubbled. _“Are you getting married to that **man**?”_ He spat the word out like it was a filthy curse that shouldn’t have been spoken aloud.

            Carla’s eyebrows scrunched together as her lips thinned, she crossed her arms over her chest. _“Yes. I’m getting married to **Grisha**.” _ She corrected Keith. _“Could you please not do this and just show up to the wedding?”_ Her voice softened. _“I missed you these past years. Not even a single phone call or an email to let me know you’re okay. You barely even talk to me or my parents anymore.”_ Carla took a few steps towards Keith before grasping his face in her hands, the stubble along his cheeks scratched the palms of her hands. _“Seriously, what’s going on? Why won’t you talk to me?_ ”

            Keith angrily swatted Carla’s hands away from his face as he laughed derisively. _“You’re getting married to a man you barely even know.”_

            Carla frowned, putting her hands on her hips. _“I’ve known him for over 4 years.”_

            Keith snorted, _“is this something that you do? Just marry a guy that you don’t even know?”_

            _“What is that supposed to mean?”_

            _“How do you even know that he loves you? Or that he’s not dangerous?”_

_“Because I’ve been dating him for years Keith.”_

            Keith’s voice raised as the pounding of his own heart filled his ears. _“What makes you think that he even loves you!? That he’s not just using you!?”_

            _“Because Grisha wouldn’t do anything like that.”_ The pain of arguing with a longtime friend was evident in Carla’s eyes and then that’s when Keith realized that that’s all Carla would ever view him as. A friend.

            _“How do you even know that thought!? Do you just willingly spread your legs for every guy that shows you a bit of kindness!?”_

            The slap to his cheek stung more than the bitter taste of a broken heart did. There were tears brimming in Carla’s eyes as her mouth was fixed in a stern grimace. _“Fine, don’t show up to the wedding then. Not if you’re going to be such a jerk.”_ Carla whispered before storming out of the apartment.

            Keith regretted every single day what had transpired between them. He had always wanted to say he was sorry, just wanted to pick up the phone and call her and apologize. But he never got that chance.

            The day he had found out the news of her death. It had broken him. Something inside of him shattered as he fell to his knees and wept.

            He would never be able to apologize to her again.

 

**Present day**

            There was a sour taste in Eren’s mouth as Keith finished his story. How could it have been that his father was such a mysterious figure? It felt like Keith was holding back a part of the story that Eren needed to know. An important part, but what for?

            It seemed the more questions that were answered the more than just seemed to pop up.

            _“What’s for breakfast?”_ Armin yawned as he and Mikasa stumbled into the kitchen.

            Keith smiled down at Eren as he pushed back his chair to get plates for all of them.

            _“Keith.”_ Eren called out as the old man hummed out a response as he opened a cabinet door. _“My father’s alive.”_

            Keith paused, the plates in his hand clattering against one another. _“Is that so?”_ he simply responded before shutting the cabinet door and moving around the kitchen.

            Armin and Mikasa quickly sat down at the kitchen table, bombarding Eren with more questions than he was capable of answering.

 

**October 22 nd**

            Cloe yapped as she rolled around with her stuffed rabbit toy, wagging her tail and playfully bringing it over to Eren with the hope that he would play tug-of-war with her.

            Keith, Armin and Mikasa had gone out shopping along with his grandparents. Leaving Eren alone in Keith’s home with Cloe after several minutes of reassurance that he would be fine alone.

            Keith had given Eren a list of numbers to be used in cases of emergency only and had stared at him for a few terse moments before walking out of the house.

            Eren sighed as he picked up the remote to the TV and shut it off. His stomach was growling with hunger as he contemplated warming up some of the empanadas Keith had cooked yesterday for his lunch while he fed the animal.

            _“Come on, Cloe!”_ Eren patted his knees as he stood up from the couch. Cloe dropped her toy on the floor as she chased after Eren playfully on their way towards the kitchen.

            The coffee mug clattered against the wood of the table as Eren stood rigidly underneath the archway of the kitchen, like a forgotten sentry. Dark blue eyes bore into his and Eren swore, the sound of him swallowing the lump in his throat was the most audible thing in the room.

            _“Hello Eren,”_ Levi said coolly, _“we need to talk.”_


	21. I'm Sorry (An Update)

I would first, like to apologize to anyone who clicked on this story for the hope that they could read something new or to those who got an email saying that this fic updated. 

But I'm planning on discontinuing this fic. It's been a fun ride while it lasted and I'm super appreciative of everyone left kudos or comments or both. But I no longer have the drive to even continue this story nor the drive to sit down and restart this story afresh. I've tried and no matter how many ways I've spun it, there's nothing that I feel that I could do or put my heart and soul into that would allow for me to restart this story and let it grow. I know there are probably people out there who would love to this see this story end, but I don't want to continue a story that I'm not invested in for the sake of giving it an end that I felt wasn't worthy to the readers or the characters themselves.

 I know this news might be upsetting to some of you and again I would like to apologize for making you feel that way, especially since I'm updating this fic with a goodbye letter for the first time since last year. But I can understand if you are upset, especially if you invested so much time and energy into reading my fic and for that I'm grateful to anyone who chose to walk down that path with me. 

I won't delete this story, since it would seem a little unfair and it serves as a reminder for me of how far I've come to grown as a writer. I hope that new and old readers alike can enjoy what remains of this fic or anyone of the other fics I have to offer or the other SnK fics (that includes new Ereri ones that are better outlined and crafted) that I have planned for the future.

Again, thank you for ever having read this fic or even sticking around till the end of it.

~StormEnchanter


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